Cannibal Love 2 The Final Curtain
by CannibaLilly
Summary: Half a year ago Conan & Co. survived the attack of the cannibals, but suddenly people get attacked again and Alice keeps having weird dreams... are the cannibals back? Are Conan & Co. in danger? How much darkness hides within us? Shinichi x Lilly OC. Story.
1. Prolog & Entrace

**_Cannibal Love 2_**

_The final Curtain_

_:) I'm baaaack. Oh my precious readers I missed Cannibal Love sooo much T.T After finishing CL 1 I thought about a sequel, but first I wanted to finish my two other FFs… but I couldn't xD nah! I was thinking alone about CL2 *-* I planned it, saw its scenery and held its dialogues with myself :3 And here it is! I hope you're not tired of bloody love yet and look forward to CL 2 too! ^^_

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_~Warnings~_

_-OC! – This story will contain self-made charas. Some are unimportant but 1 is important (Lilly/Alice). But if you already read CL1 (what I'd advise u to do) you should already know her ^-^_

_-LillIchi, MitsuAi! – This story will contain and support those couples. Don't like? Don't read._

_-Cannibals! – Zombie-like monster, which will also lead to horror & gore (not glorified ofc! But still M)_

_-Ecchi (H)! – That means physical relationships (No hardcore; rated T is enough I believe). I think it's kinda sad DC contains very few ecchi moments ^.~ The charas are sooo cute and since Ai, Alice and Conan are actually adult I'm simply going to use some smexy moments :} I really enjoyed writing this single ecchi chapter in CL1 and since I didn't want to write a "just-ecchi-and-plotless-FF" I'll use it here ;* Don't worry, all who really hate this can just skip parts that are marked with a "H" for ecchi :33_

_xD Please! Read the WHOLE prologue before forming your opinion. And don't worry :3 Sekai is no one important, just a random chara I need for this story._

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[Prologue]

-Sekai Tsuyama-

"HEEEELP!" the beautiful woman in the nurses' dress screamed shrilly. "WHAA" the pale guy in the battered patient's-nightshirt moaned and sprinkled the nurse's face and neck with saliva and blood. She backed off as far as the poky space in the morgue allowed her to. The man rocked after her, his hands reaching to grab the edge of her (pretty short) dress. His whole skin was pale blue, his eyes white and empty and all in all he looked more like a rotten shadow of himself than a person.

"We should never have entered this closed hospital at a Friday the 13th she whined and pressed her hands sorrowful against her boobs. _"Wrong"_ Sekai though _"you should never have decided to try out a curse that was built to turn people into zombies."_

"Wrong" a voice appeared out loud and made Sekai wince. A screaming shot cut through the air and hit the zombie's head. Powerful the rotten monster flew back and hit the floor; this time he was really dead. "Oh Nintarou! You rescued my live" the blond nurse cheered and snuggled herself closer to the handsome man who'd just appeared. "But you killed it" she suddenly whined and threw a pretending-caring-look at the dead monster. "It was a zombie, you got to kill them before they kill you" the man philosophized and the nurse nodded admiring.

Sekai poured out a long sigh and got up from the couch. The program promised this movie to be awesome. _'Great effects, better actors and a stunning story'_ it said but until now it had given Sekai nothing but boredom nicely wrapped in cheap stereotypes and model-like actors. She switched off the TV and left the nurse's station in her real nurse dress. Compared to the outfit the actress wore in the movie it resembled more a burlap bag than a dress; her break was over anyways.

Disappointed she started her tour through the patient's rooms. She was a nurse in the Beika City Hospital (short BCH), it was about 2 p.m. and Sekai Tsuyama thought about the movie she had just seen. She was actually addicted to Zombies and Zombie-movies, but this one had been 2 hours of boredom with cheap blood and plastic-actors. During her tour Sekai passed by the hallway to the forbidden rooms. In these laboratories special diseases were studied and barely anyone was allowed to enter them. Someone told Sekai that maybe half a year ago a new disease had been brought here. No one really knew what it could do… everything Sekai had heard was that it was set free in an elementary in winter and that there was already a remedy. But since a week this healed disease was seemingly under discussion again. The forbidden rooms were visited more often and Sekai and the other nurses couldn't help but trying to find out what was going on… until now they failed.

Yawning Sekai quitted her tour and decided to go home. Most likely this disease was not interesting anyways like the most were. But still… for some moments Sekai nearly laughed about herself. What had she thought? That maybe a disease was discovered that turned people into zombies? How ridicules, Sekai really had to stop watching those horror movies or one day she'd really believe her own life could be one.

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**_[Act 1] - ||Entrance||_**

-Conan-

"Ouch! It's hurts!" Alice scream made every muscle in Conan's body wince.

"Alice, what happened?!" he shouted over so she could hear him.

"N…nothing, it's just my arm" she whimpered. Conan rushed over to the doorframe and peeked into the corridor that connected the kitchen to the office of the Mori-detective-agency. He saw Alice closing her eyes to hold back tears of pain; her hand covered the part of her left arm beyond the shoulder.

Finally Conan sighed "did you do it again?" he asked, most likely this time she'd hit a corner of the kitchen table. She opened her eyes a little and smiled "I really should stop walking while singing."

"No, you should stop closing your eyes while walking and singing" he replied amused and walked back into the office again. The office was illuminated by the midday sun of this pretty warm day of July and Conan walked slowly over to the couch and his book again. Even though everybody was wearing only shorts and T-shirts since some weeks it didn't help them to deal with the summer heat. Except Alice of course, she was only wearing skirts and T-shirts, she couldn't help it, she said, but it was a part of her education _'It has nothing to do with emancipation or not. Girl wear skirts, boys were trousers. If you start wearing skirts I'll start wearing trousers'_ that was what she kept saying.

Conan hopped back on the unpleasant hot court of the couch and tried to go back into Baker Street where Holmes and Watson suffered beyond the rain they lacked in Tokyo. He had read _'The Adventure of Black Peter'_ several times, but it still fascinated him. Alice started to sing again. Conan's eyes jumped up to the open kitchen door again and back. "~…I hear you calling and it's needles and pins~" he heard her and smirked. Another thing she couldn't help, starting to sing ever and anon. It was a habit of hers.

When she came to Japan she did it often, most of the time she tried to avoid it when others were around but she couldn't always… Then she stopped. The day her sister died the singing stopped and stood lost.

Until she started it again, maybe a month ago. One day Conan heard her humming out of the blue and then, some days later, she sang. Lost in thoughts he closed 'Black Peter' and put it away, he couldn't focus on it now. Instead he leaned back and closed his eyes to exclude the sunlight for some minutes. "~I wanna love you but I better not touch~" Alice singing was low, like she hoped he wouldn't hear her. For a moment he remembered how often it happened that Alice ran into something because she closed her eyes while singing, but this scream had been different, it had made him wince because it rang a bell in his memory, deep inside the piece of his memory he locked away painful moments.

"~I wanna hold you~" The last time she'd hurt her arm was half a year ago in school, a cannibal had attacked and infected her by biting her arm. The last time she said _'it hurts'_ had been in his nightmare back then. But everything turned out to be ok, they got healed and slowly everyone forgot about it, or at least stopped reminding about it.

"~but my senses tell me to stop~" The singing grew some louder and Conan pushed the memory away like a huge cloud, this memory was no good to remember and he was better off with keeping it pushed away.

"The Adventure of Black Peter... I have never known my friend to be in better form, both mental and physical, than in the year '95." Slowly he opened his eyes. Alice had sat down on the other end of the couch and read the first sentence of the Holmes novel out loud. Her curly, thick, brown hair that was bound together a little with a white bow and hung in her face and she stroked it back over her leave-green polo shirt. He wanted to say something but he saw Alice now moving her mouth silently, crossing her legs in her white skirt and her eyes running over the string of black letters, seemingly absorbed by the novel.

Conan sat back and kept quiet, watching the girl reading this book he liked so much. "Stop watching me" she ordered out of the blue without looking up. He smirked. "Gomen. What do you think of it?"

She smiled and closed the book. "I only read the first few sentences, I dunno yet."

"Ok, then finish it and tell me later."

Alice blinked "you borrow me one of your precious Holmes books?" she asked. "I'd have borrowed you any of them if you asked me" he replied defensively. Alice snickered "well, I know most of them since you told me every – little – detail." She brought her face close to his and threw a provoking look at him with her brown eyes that seemed glued to his. He felt his cheeks glowing, even though they'd been become a couple they still felt a little weird being this close… though it was a good weird feeling. "Ok then you don't need it" he grabbed the book and held it away from her. "Hey! You never talked about Blek Peta" she protested with an English accent and Conan twitched his mouth. "Chigau" he corrected "it's Black Peter, not Blek Peta." She blushed and jerked her head away. "Tsk, I pronounce it correct, at least Holmes has been English before they translated it into Japanese."

Conan shrugged "anyways, you pronounce _this_ title wrong."

"Fine" she replied plainly and leaned back looking at him "then you read for me Mr. Know-it-all." He blinked but since she kept expectantly glaring at him he cleared his throat and started to read. "His increasing fame had brought with it an immense practice, and I should be guilty of an indiscretion if I were even to hint at the identity of some of the illustrious clients who…"

_All rights of the song "Poison" go to Alice Cooper. All rights of "The Adventure of Black Peter" go to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle._

-Alice-

Conan cursed. "I'll follow him, you throw a look into this room; we need to find out what he did!" Before she could argue with him he turned around in the dark depot and traced after the man who tried to escape. Alice sighed and whipped her hand over her forehead. The July-sun had turned the old depot into a huge sauna and the summer made itself felt even though it was nearly all dark within the depot. Alice slowly walked over to a door some feet away from the iron-stairs Conan and the culprit had climbed up. The ground to her feet was dirty and dusty and every step she took echoed off of the walls of this empty building.

Alice and Conan had finally solved a case that kept them busy since some days. Not a big case though. Just this guy black-mailing his ex wife and her new boyfriend but now he tried to escape and kept saying something about committing suicide so Conan had followed him and sent Alice to find out what the culprit had done in the little room in the depot where he hid until they found him. When they had arrived they heard a weird sound like a metallic clicking and then some kind of crackling.

Alice had reached the door. She hated it when Conan followed a culprit on his own and sent her away. Of course he just wanted to protect her with telling her to find about something meaningless, but it scared her to think about Conan all alone with a dangerous guy as long as they were still captured in the bodies of children.

She twitched her mouth, not because of anger, just because she'd smelled something new in the air that had just smelled like a very old and dirty depot till now. The smell was thick and distinctive. Alice stopped with her hand on the door handle. A metallic clicking…. Crackling… a distinctive smell... She backed off.

Fire! The moment she understood it, thick, dark clouds of smoke appeared from beyond the door and made their way into the depot hall. If she'd opened this door the oxygen from this huge hall had forced its way inside the small room and had turned the fire within into an inferno that had most likely killed her. This was what this idiot had done within there! He really wanted to kill himself. She rushed over to the iron stairs. "Conan!" she shouted up into the 1. floor of the building which lay in darkness. "I'm ok, he's stunned" Conan replied from above her and seconds later his eased face appeared in the whole the stairs left in the upper floor. "Fire!" she shouted and instantly Conan's blue eyes widened.

By this time Alice could see growing flames licking the iron door and slowly destroying it. "Ok, I need to get him out of here. Lilly, you go and call the fire service." With these words Conan vanished in the darkness above again and left Alice back. She made an angry sound like a mixture of an angry cat and a dying bird. She hated this _'I do this… you do that…'_ he got used to. Being a couple didn't mean they stopped being partners. She turned around with her mobile phone in her hand… hesitating.

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-Conan-

Conan walked through the darkness of the 1. floor. He was barely able to see everything because of the poor light that came through a single squared window. Finally he'd reached the culprit, Takuyama-san, who lay stunned and motionless on the floor. Conan heaved up Takuyama-san's huge body up and brought himself beyond him. Strained he shouldered the man and dragged him over to the stairs, now he regretted stunning him that far away from the exit.

Just when he desperately wondered how he should get this mountain of a man downstairs Alice's head appeared at the stairs. She plugged it up into the 1. floor and seemingly tried to get used to the darkness around. "Shinichi!" she smiled when she'd finally seen him, just like she was happily surprised about meeting him up here. "What are you doing here?" he gasped under the weight of Takuyama-san. "Wait I'll help you" Alice said and ignored his question and since he didn't stop glaring angrily at her she added "don't worry, I alarmed the fire service, but now we need to get him out of here."

He sighed and unwillingly he let her help him. In his 17-year-old-form he'd easily be able to get Takuyama-san out of this house himself but again his small body made itself felt. Never the less he was eased she helped him; he had kinda thought he'd need to roll this man downstairs, but with Alice's help they managed it slowly down to the ground floor. By this time the whole ground floor was flooded with thick, dark smoke and Conan saw that near a small iron-door a pile of cardboards had caught fire that seemingly had spread all over; the whole depot was aflame now.

"We need to hurry up" he shouted over the loud crackling of fire all around and the creaking of wood from above. "Ok!" Alice shouted back and coughed. Through the dark grey clouds Conan was barely able to spot her face even though she was just standing some inches away from him. He clenched his teeth; they had wasted too much time at the stairs. _"Where is this silly fire service"_ he pondered angrily when suddenly a loud crack shot over the sound of fire all around. Fast Conan looked up and even though he couldn't see a thing he knew the ceiling was about to fall down. Both did their best to walk faster what was nearly impossible with Takuyama-san on their shoulders.

Another crack appeared, even louder than the one before and the next thing Conan saw was that something heavy fell down on them. Dust was raised and smaller things fell down and still flames and smoke was everywhere. With his eyes closed and doing his best not to breath Conan dragged the stunned man on, the exit couldn't be too far away anymore.

With a dull bang Conan recognized Takuyama-san's head had hit something. He tried to see what it hit and to his very release it was a huge door. With the last rest of his strength he pulled down the door handle and dragged the man outside where sun and fresh air welcomed him.

Smiling in ease he looked around the container harbor, it was dirty and abandoned but at least they had escaped the fire. He looked down to Takuyama-san whose face and clothes were covered with smoke and ashes. "That was close, ne Lil?" he asked still breathing in deeply and turned around. He and Takuyama-san were alone. His eyes widened and he glared back at the depot that was aflame. Alice wasn't around.

"Oh no!" he mumbled and without hesitation he rushed back into the depot, covering his mouth with his shirt. How could he have lost her? She had been right at his side until the ceiling fell down. An odd feeling made his stomach contract, Alice couldn't have been hit by pieces of the ceiling; she just couldn't! "Lilly?!" he shouted and instantly his lungs filled with smoke and he coughed. "S…chi" he heard and looked around. He had heard her voice. "Where are you?!" he shouted again this time through his shirt. "H…here" he heard a low voice from his left and walked through the burning depot. Finally, illuminated by some close flames he saw her. A huge, wooden joist was laying on her waist and jammed her. "Lilly!" he gasped and didn't waste time to kneel down to her; instead he grabbed the joist and pushed against it with his whole body. It didn't move, not for a single millimeter.

Conan stopped and tried another way. Just like he dragged Takuyama-san he tried to get his shoulder under the joist and lift it up. This ended up being even more impossible. Gasping and coughing he tried to think. He hadn't put on his suspenders to lift the joist up and Alice had seemingly lost consciousness so he wasn't sure if he could drag her away from under the joist without seriously hurting her. Feeling all desperate he looked for something he could use as some kind of handle but he couldn't see a thing through all the smoke. If he just had been Shinichi he thought. In his usual body he would have been able to lift the joist.

"Here is someone!" he suddenly heard a muffled voice and within seconds he was surrounded by firemen. "She's jammed…" he started to explain coughing but one of the firemen just lift Conan up and brought him out. "Well do that boy" he said "don't worry we will safe your friend." And with these words he passed Conan over to a paramedic.

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_Please leave a review to help me improve :}_


	2. Waiting

**_[Act 2] - ||Waiting||_**

_Short one this time ^^; gomen. But I promise the next chapter will follow on wednesday when my school play is finally done :)_

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-Sekai-

Sekai couldn't wait to get rid of the white mask. Among all the things she loved about being a nurse she only hated it to wear those surgical masks. They hid the face, they made doctors and nurses look like an army of faceless machines; how should scared patients trust people without faces? Not that it had been a problem this time. The patient they just medicated had been unconscious so it was not about trust or not.

"You're ok?" a male voice asked from behind and Sekai turned around. The man who'd spoken was the senior physician and her mentor; a 46 year old man called Kenzo Ito and (to Sekai's very disappointment) happily married. She nodded grateful for him worrying about her. "Sure, I just dislike these masks."

"Ok…" he replied. "It's just that some nurses have difficulties with medicating hurt children" and with these words he patted her shoulder and left the patient's room. Sekai looked back at the bed. A little girl lay on it and judging from her appearance and name she was English. Sekai slowly walked up to the bed and watched the girl. Her mouth was covered with a lung ventilator and her curly brown hair lay messy on the white pillow. Carefully she stroked her head. She came here by the fire service, _'fire in a depot'_ they said. The girl wasn't seriously burned, she'd just inhaled too much of the venomous smoke. "You'll be ok" Sekai said, not really sure if it was crazy to talk to an unconscious person. "Sleep some time, your lungs will be all right, you just need a rest."

"So she's ok?" a voice appeared and made Sekai tilt around. A boy with glasses was standing right behind her and watched the heart monitor that showed the girl's pulls. Sekai slowly nodded, she'd seen the boy before. He'd also been in the depot the firemen said and when they arrived he had tried to get the girl out of the depot.

She kneeled down to him and smiled "you've been a hero. The firemen said you rescued a man and tried to rescue the girl, too."

The boy ignored her and passed her by to walk up to the girl. Actually Sekai had thought he'd smile gladly and she could distract him with some toys till his parents would arrive, but the way he stood there, looking at the monitors like he understood them, made him look more like an adult than a child. Sekai decided to leave them alone. There was a reason why she became a nurse on the accident and emergency department; she couldn't handle children like the other women. She loved medicine, it fascinated her, but children weren't her cup of tea.

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-Ai-

When Kudo called them Ai blinked unbelieving. She knew he and Alice where away for some kind of case so how did they manage it to get into a fire? Judging from what Kudo told her both were ok, but Alice was still unconscious and lay in hospital so Agasa, the Mori family and Ai drove instantly out to the Beika City hospital.

When they arrived there Kogoro and Agasa soon had to vanish to get the paperwork done since Alice's parents weren't in the country (and even if they were they would either hijack or kill her), so only Ran, Ai and Conan were left. Ai wanted to wait; she didn't want to see Alice lying in a bed with her lung ventilator so Ran went in and left Conan and Ai alone.

After an eternity of silence Ai finally spoke. "Gosh, only you two can manage it to hunt for a culprit and nearly die in a fire." He answered her comment with glaring coldly at the door to Alice's room. "Oh come on Kudo-kun" she added "She will be ok! The doctors said she should be awake about tomorrow."

"Yeah, thanks to the firemen." Ai was surprised how repellent Conan's voice sounded and while she glared at him he continued "I couldn't help her."

Finally she understood what made him this angry. "B…but it wasn't your fault" she tried but he clenched his hands to fists. "No, it wasn't, but I couldn't help her. I couldn't move this joist for a single millimeter, no matter how hard I tried."

"Kudo!" she began "it was a joist! You can't think you could lift a…"

"The first firemen who arrived lifted it up like it was nothing" he interrupted her. "Tell you why Haibara. Because it was nothing!" his voice grew acrid. "As Shinichi I could have helped her, she hadn't been trapped in the smoke for that long and would be ok."

"Y…you… can't change it. We're like this at the moment, of course it has its disadvantages, but…" she wasn't quite sure what she should say but she didn't need to continue speaking anyways. Conan simply turned around and walked away down the corridor, away from Ai and the room until she couldn't see him anymore. Ai sighed and threw a skeptical look after him, though she couldn't help it but feeling this odd feeling within her stomach. Something about the way he simply walked away made her think he was up to do something stupid.

She shook her head, what could he do? Maybe he would take his anger out on someone, but he couldn't do anything about being like this at the moment. For a moment Ai thought about the place she hid the temporary-antidote for APTX4869, but she was sure she was the only one who knew where it is. Eased she walked into Alice's room after Ran had left it; there was nothing to worry about, Conan could only wait and Ai really hoped he would accept that.

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-Alice-

Alice opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was red court. She blinked and slowly sat up. She was lying on a couch, a red couch in the middle of a living room. She looked around, she felt she'd been here before but she couldn't tell when, it felt more like a déjà-vu than an actual memory. She got up and tried to remember how she'd come there. She looked down her body and suppressed a scream. It wasn't only that she wore a white dress she'd never seen before she was also tall. "I… I'm Lilly again?" she mumbled shocked and smoother the dress to see if it could be true, but this was doubtlessly her body. Slowly she walked around in the room. It was nicely furnished, maybe a little dark because it had no windows but it was ok.

A mirror on the wall behind the couch told her she was really Lilly again and while she walked up to the mirror above the fireplace she heard it. "Finally." Lilly turned shocked around; she was alone but she'd sworn she'd heard a voice whisper. "I've waited forever!" the whisper appeared again; it had grown louder.

"Who is there?" she asked out loud. "Where am I?"

"No one and nowhere" the whisper replied and Lilly turned around again, she was still alone and the whispers sounded like they came from all around. She clenched her teeth, what was happening here? The last thing she remembered was the fire and… Conan. _"Where is he?"_ she thought. "Not here" the voice replied and Lilly's eyes widened. She hadn't asked out loud. "I know you, you don't have to speak to make me understand what you mean" the whispers weren't whispers anymore, it was more an echo from around. "B…but" she began but the echo interrupted her.

"Take a seat everyone! Please be quiet and look forward to the coming spectacle." The echo sounded like the voices Lilly had heard in theaters, ceremonious and excited, but where was the audience it spoke to? And still Lilly couldn't tell if the voice was male or female, it was just there; echoing in the room and in her head. "It-will-be-SPECTACULAR!" the echo shouted and Lilly needed to cover her ears.

Finally the voice ebbed away and Lilly looked around. After this announcement she'd waited for something to happen, but it was just all silent. "Nothing happens…?" she asked lowly and the echo laughed jolly. "I can understand your impatience, but you have to wait a little longer."

"Waiting for what?" she shouted, slowly this all scared her. Out of the blue a piece of the wall around opened. It seemed there was some kind of hidden door that had been opened up. Slowly she walked over to it, but before she was close enough to even touch its handle the echo repapered. "Time is running up" it said "prepare for the coming events, at least both of us waited for this since month." And with these words the room fell dark.

Alice opened her eyes. Fast she sat up and had to support her head with her hand. It was nearly all dark; the only light came from the moon that shone through a window and a green light coming from a heart-monitor. She was in a hospital, lying in a bed and wearing a patient's nightdress. She looked down her body; it was the body of the 7-year old Alice. Sighing she lay back. It had been a dream. Soon the medicine they must have given to her made itself felt and fatigue hit her mind. She had been jagged under a joist and was now in hospital; she still remembered how Conan was brought away by a fireman so he was ok. She smiled while her eyes fell shot, she didn't even have enough time to worry about the weird dream she just had.

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_Please leave a review to help me improve :}_


	3. Preparation

**_[Act 3] - ||Preparation||_**

_May some of you have recognized that this time I didn't put similar titles like in CL 2, but since most of chu seemed to like it I thought of these titles :33 All refer to a topic, so this way I could connect them ;) Can u already guess the topic? I bet you can xDD_

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-Ai-

Ai, Conan and the Detective Boys were walking slowly up to the hospital's entrance. It had been 3 days since Alice was brought there and finally she was well enough to have company by such a huge group. Ai ran her hand through her hair. The weather had become even hotter and one could barely spend some minutes outside so their group was pretty exhausted by the time they finally entered the conditioned hospital.

The only one who seemed quite happy was Conan. He hadn't moaned about the heat even once, though this had become the usual way to greet peoples these days. "You know which room she has?" Mitsuhiko asked while they passed by the information counter. "Sure. 2111" Conan replied while he pushed the button for the elevator; room 2111 was on floor 2.

"Ne Conan-kun, what's in this bag?" Ayumi asked after she'd stared at it since they walked away from Agasa's house. Conan looked down at the bag. It was huge and looked pretty heavy. "Old clothes" he replied and his friends all watched him skeptical. "For charity, you know" he added. "You're giving away cloth?" Ai asked lowly so only Conan could hear her. "Just some stuff I wore when I was 5, since I had to get back to my 7-year-old cloth I found them and Alice thought it'd be a good idea to donate some old cloth." Ai snickered "wow, pretty bold, you're sure you'll never need to use them again?" He replied "haha, very funny. I hope this nice poison of yours don't have such a hidden operation." And still with an obviously happy mood he watched the elevator door open.

Ai watched Conan while they all entered the iron elevator. She had to glare through the bouquet she was carrying, yesterday when she asked Conan if they shouldn't visit Alice in their group he agreed and suggested she could buy some flowers at the shop near Agasa-hakase's place. _'Lilies would be great'_ he said brightly and made Ai wonder. She thought it would take some time until he would get over this _'I couldn't rescue her'_-thingy… but he was ok again ever since the next day. Inwardly Ai shrugged. Maybe he really got he couldn't change it or he was hiding it so Alice wouldn't worry about him, either way she hoped the issue was done.

Soon they entered the patient's room 2111, it was a one-bed room and one of the most run downs in the old hospital; its walls were dirty, the air was stuffy and not even the panoramic view through the window, where one could see some copse in front of the main entrance, could make up for the poor sanitation. "Minna" Alice cheered from her bed and beaming she sat up. She needed to push away two teddies and some balloons to see them. Ai smiled and together they walked up to Alice's bed. Conan had told Ai that when Ran, Kita and Naomi entered the scant room they brought here half of a gift shop to make up for Alice lack of presents since she had no family to visit her.

"How are you?" "So you can leave tomorrow? Hurray!" "You didn't miss anything important in school." "We all miss you!" They exchanged the usual phrases one uses while visiting a friend in hospital but no matter how cynical Ai wanted to look at it the 2 hours they spent in Alice's meager room passes by oddly fast and a much too soon it was time for them to leave. "Can you go ahead minna?" Alice asked when everyone was about to leave and looked at Genta, Ayumi, Mitsuhiko and Conan. "I just want to tell Ai what to note down for me in school, even if I can leave hospital tomorrow Ran will force me to stay home for at least some days." Unwillingly the others left them alone and Ai looked skeptical at her friend. Was this an excuse to be alone with her or was Alice really worried about missing stuff in school? One could never be sure about Alice.

"Ne Ai… he's alright, right?" Alice voice sounded worried, so she didn't want to talk about school. "Kudo? Hmhm, yes I think so… why?" Ai asked and saw Alice biting her lip and leaning against the elevated head board. "Nandemo nai" she mumbled "… it's just that I keep heaving weird dreams." Alice tried a laugh "nothing serious." Now Ai was alarmed, whenever Alice said it was _'nothing serious'_ one could be sure it was serious. She walked to the bed of her friend and glared at her "what kind of dreams?"

"Varying ones" she replied plainly and Ai knew, though she'd tried to avoid this, Alice had planned this conversation; likely she'd thought it through while being alone. "y… you remember the happening in school some month ago? Hah, of course you do, how could you not." Alice voice was calm while talking but Ai felt every part of her body tense. It had been some kind of unspoken contract among Conan, Alice, the detective boys and Ai never to mention this night again.

Unwillingly expecting where this would lead them to Ai nodded. "Y… you dreamed about it again?" Alice answered Ai's question by glaring out of the window. "I'm always. There was barely a night without me dreaming about it… but…"

"Then it's alright!" Ai interrupted her fast. "It was a shock; everyone deals with it in a personal way. You dream about it, don't worry."

"I told myself the same" Alice replied knitting her eyebrows. Seemingly she was not ready to drop this issue. "It's just… they were nightmares! Every night when I remembered me being infected… trying to hurt someone… my attack on Conan… Nightmares. I always woke up sweating and feeling sick, just like it should be… but last night… it has been a normal pleasant dream… the same horrible things" Alice voice died. She raised her head and looked into Ai's eyes. With a stronger voice she continued "I tell you because… you remember our deal?" Ai blinked. Actually they had two deals at this night. One with the cannibal-Alice containing Alice eating her… the second one seemed now, looking back, even more unpleasant. "You promised you wouldn't let me hurt anyone, remember?" Alice said and spoke out loud what Ai was afraid of.

"Alice!"

"Remember?"

Angrily Ai grabbed Alice's arm and pushed up her sleeve, up to the point where the cannibal bit her. "See this?" Ai asked "Nothing! It healed, you were healed! The cannibals are gone, the powder is locked away." Ai let go of Alice's arm and for a moment both girls remained silent. Now Ai felt sorry, she didn't want to be that gruff, but she would do everything to avoid what happened half a year ago again. Finally Alice smiled and laid her hand on her arm. "You're right." Ai blinked. "It's over… gomen. I was just panicking." Ai's look was still dark, but she nodded. "I'm sure as soon as you've recovered those dreams will vanish."

And Alice nodded smiling and Ai turned to the door, still not sure if the smile had been fake. "I'll Remember" she said with her shivering hand on the handle. "Arigatou" Alice said lowly from her bed and Ai left the room without looking back.

None of them recognized the bag full of old cloth Conan had forgotten under Alice's bed.

* * *

-Kan Shinmei-

Kan Shinmei wavered through the nightly streets of Beika. He'd have maybe one or two… or more beer and now searched for a nice little place to spend the night. _'If you ever drink too much, then just come to me and I allow you to spend the night'_ the kind woman from the food bank had told Kan but this wasn't that easy. "No one would let no drunk old guy like I'm in his nice lil taxi, no mam, he wouln't and busses don take me not too. Life can be hard when u're broke" he babbled while looking around for a free bench.

This district was pretty full of homeless people so it turned out to be difficult to find a free place to spend the night. Kan walked around a corner and, after he'd stopped to regain balance, he finally saw it. A nice, half clean, free bench; waiting for him to sleep on it. Dizzy Kan looked up; the bench stood close to a huge and bright building; The Beika City Hospital, Kan knew it quite well and he was sure no one in this run down building would give a damn about him sleeping in front of it.

Kan slowly walked up to the building. A loud honking interrupted him and made him jump back. A car rushed right onto him and had nearly hit him, if Kan hadn't backed off. Kan cursed and threw some swear words after the driver of this car. Now he needed to support himself with his hands on the sidewalk he'd fallen to. Why had the only car he'd seen in this bloody night drive around when he just wanted to cross the street. "Baaad luuuuck~" he babbled while slowly getting up, a task that was nearly impossible while being drunk.

Again a sound interrupted Kan's moves. The door of the BCH on the other side slid open and a doctor and a nurse stepped out into this hot summer night. Paralyzed he watched the 2 running over the yard and up to a dark copse near the bench Kan chose as his bed. "What are you doing here?" Kan heard the nurse ask and for a moment he thought she was talking to him.

"_She aint talkin to you Kan, she's too far away idiot"_ his inner Kan told him. His inner Kan was pretty smart. He always wanted him to take a job and stop drinking, but at the moment his inner Kan was drunk too and didn't know what to do, too so both just didn't make a move and waited there, watching the white dressed people. "…unconscious… go inside and get…" he only heard scraps of what the doctor said since an ambulance just returned and drowned the other noises around with its sirens. As soon as the huge white car was gone he saw the nurse rushing back inside while the doctor stood back at the cops, seemingly they found something within the cops. _"Or someone"_ the inner Kan suggested and now Kan saw that the doctor had banded over a pretty small human. Likely they had found a hurt child Kan's drunk brain thought and finally he straightened up, if he'd been sober he may have wondered why there was a hurt child lying in the copse but at the moment he just wanted to occupy the bench before the doctor would put the child on it.

"You're ok?" the doctor's voice suddenly asked and, not really knowing why, Kan fast hid behind a tree close to him. _"I really wonder if'll ever make it over da street"_ the inner Kan moaned but Kan was absorbed by what he saw on the yard of the hospital. The child had seemingly sat up and the doctored scanned it, looking worried. Kan squinted his eyes; he really wished the doctor would drag the child out, beyond one of the lamps. At the moment Kan could only see the doctor and the silhouette of the child. "What were you doing here?" Kan heard the doctor again and then… he was sure the child answered but it was much too low, he didn't even hear if it was male or female.

"What?" the doctor's eyes widened and he looked shocked. _"Kaaan! I dun want to hear no stupid probs of a kiiiid! Go n get the bench"_ the inner Kan nagged but Kan ignored him. The inner Kan had no eyes; he didn't see what Kan saw. And what Kan saw made his stomach contract.

"H…hey!" the child had grabbed the doctor's overall and pulled him down into the cops. Kan couldn't believe what he saw! A little child, well actually he only saw a little black silhouette, had enough strength to pull down the doctor. A ripping sound shot through the air and made even the inner Kan hush for some seconds before he spoke again. _"Wh…what's happenin there Kan?"_ the inner Kan lowly asked and Kan increased his garb on the tree he hid behind. After half an eternity the copse stopped moving. Finally the silhouette stood up and seemingly dragged something out of the cops. Something big, something motionless, something that lost a whole lot of blood! For a short moment the child-silhouette and whatever it dragged, where close enough to a lamp for Kan to see them.

Kan backed off and fell over his own feet. Hardly he hit the ground with his back and suppressed a gasp. Without hesitation he rolled over to his hands and knees and pushing himself up he rushed away. He didn't stop, he just ran and ran and… well fell ever and anon, but he never stopped. What he had seen within these seconds while the silhouette had appeared under the lamp had turned his blood cold and he was sure he could never forget this picture. This picture of a child! An actual child, who dragged a bleeding, unconscious doctor after him… and then it had tilted its head over to Kan and their eyes had met. It had raised its hand and laid a finger on its bloodstained lips.

* * *

-Ran-

The next morning Ran Mori awoke in her bed and stretched out her arms. She hopped out of her bed and opened the curtains. She was in a great mood, today they could finally pick up Alice from hospital. She looked down on the futon Alice usually used and which hadn't been touched since a while now. Ran decided not to let this take her mood down, at least Alice would come home today and so she dressed up still feeling happy.

Fast she prepared the breakfast for Conan, her father and herself and by the time she brought it into the living room the men had woken up too. "Moooring" she chirped happily, the men replied with a moan and her father switched on the TV. Ran sighed; she was still bent not to let anything get her down today.

While the 3 of them had breakfast the TV kept speaking. The news woman spoke about the weather, a new election of a corrupt politician somewhere in Europe and then the mood within the news-show suddenly darkened.

"And now to something more serious" the news lady announced and the three eating people in the Mori-agency looked up from their rice bowls. "Yesterday night around 3 p.m. Kenzo Ito, the 46 years old senior physician at the Beika City Hospital was hijacked."

Ran felt the last piece of her toast being stuck in her throat. This name… it rang a bell in her mind. "The nurse on duty, Sekai Tsuyama, was with him before he vanished and called the police. The police found nothing but a puddle of blood near cops on the yard of the BCH. Judging from what Tsuyama-san said she and doctor Ito found an unconscious person within the cops… this person has vanished, too."

Silence had entered the living room. Ran saw her father and Conan staring worriedly at the TV so it took her some time to dare speaking. "D… doctor Ito… isn't that the doctor who medicated Alice?" Ran saw Conan slowly nodding. "Oh no! I hope Alice is alright" fast Ran got up and rushed to the telephone.

"Calm down" her father ordered before she'd reached it. "If a child had vanished from the hospital too don't you think they'd said it?" he asked and slowly Ran sat down again. Of course he was right, but now Ran didn't want to do anything else than getting the girl out of this hospital.

"I can imagine what happened" her father continued. "BCH is in a pretty rundown district. Likely doctor Ito has found an unconscious druggie and when the junky woke up he wanted to get drugs from Ito, well seemingly they started to fight." Kogoro sipped from his coffee and Ran twitched her mouth. It could be true what her dad said… but she felt still worried.

"Oh!" the woman from the news made a surprised sound and dragged the attention of the three people back onto her. "I just hear that our reporter-team found an actual eye-witness!" Ran clapped her hands over her mouth, Kogoro dropped his chopsticks and Conan banded forward to the TV. "I saw it!" a shout cut through the morning silence in the tantei-agency and Ran suppressed a scream.

Close in front of the camera a man appeared. He seemed to be old, 40, or 50… it was hard to tell since he looked battered and dirty. "A hobo…?" Ran heard her father mumbling and seemingly he was right. The man looked broke and chronically drunk… but there was also an odd scared look in his eyes which were staring right through the camera so Ran felt like the man directly spoke to her.

"I saaaaaw it!" he said again after the reporter-team push him gently away so the audience was able to see more of the man than his face. "The man was attacked! Dis was no robbery! No one wanted his money or drugs! Nooo sir! It wanted nothing but his blood, kay?"

"It?" the reporter dug deeper. "Yes! I saaaaw it! My inner Kan said I shouldn't tell ya, but I need to waaaarn everybodey!" Ran disliked the way the man made every 'a' sound long like a deep moan. "Ok? Listen!" the man stepped closer again like he wanted to whisper something in the camera's ear. "It lay in the copse near the hospital. It pretended to be unconscious but uhuh! No sir! It faked it and then when the doc was alone ZAP it pulled him down and bit him! I swear I'vent seen that many blood in ma whole life!"

"It? What is it?" the reporter asked again and the shivering hobo whispered "the child!" And with these words the snickering woman in the news office was shown again. "Well, I think we shouldn't give too much about this witness."

The TV turned black and Ran saw that her father had switched it off. "She's right" Kogoro said slightly angry. "They found a crazy old hobo to tell some kind of horror story about what? A monster-child that lurks in copses, ready to _eat_ people? Oh come on!" Still angry about this Ran's dad got up and walked over into his room to dress up fully.

Ran was still sitting on the floor; thinking. Of course her dad was right. Often homeless people go crazy after a while so she really shouldn't think too much into this. And still… Since Ran saw the fear in the man's eyes she couldn't help it but believe that he was no liar. "W…what do you think Conan-kun?" she asked lowly and looked at Conan. To her surprise she saw that the blue eyed boy was still glaring at the TV, with his hands he clenched his rice bowl. Ran hesitated, Conan was maybe a child but usually he wasn't easy to scare… so what was it that made him look that shocked?

"C…Conan?" she begun again and finally her words seemed to have reached him, he tilted his head around to her and, surprisingly he slightly laughed. "Kogoro-ojisan is right" he said still laughing "they used this old guy to spread a horror story. I mean, seriously, _'my inner-Kan'_? We can be sure he's a nut."

And when he recognized the skeptical look on Ran's face he added "maybe he's no liar, you see? Maybe he has seen something and his mind mixed it up into such a horror story." Finally Ran nodded and both got up to get ready for picking up Alice. Conan was right, this explained why he didn't appeared to be a liar… it was weird how the boy again had calmed Ran's fears, but no matter how logical his explanation sounded, Ran couldn't forget about the shock in his eyes when they heard the hobo talking…

* * *

_Please leave a review to help me improve :}_


	4. Taking a seat

**_[Act 4] - ||Taking a seat||_**

-Conan-

Conan glared at his wristwatch; 12:52 a.m. Ran had been right, taking the bus to the hospital took him more than twice the time it had taken them with the car, but he was still glad everything turned out this way.

Ever since they heard the news he pondered how he should prevent Ran and Kogoro from talking to Alice about what this hobo said. He really didn't see a way as suddenly Ran's mobile phone started ringing. It was Sonoko, of course, and she needed help. It had been something about their coming math exams and before Ran could put Sonoko off Conan took his chance. He offered he could take the bus to pick Alice up and when Ran asked why Kogoro didn't simply drive him there Conan has mumbled a poor excuse he didn't want to bother him while he rushed out of the door.

He sighed and glared at his watch again; the bus just turned into the street near the BCH. Conan could already see the old white building and twitched his mouth. Beika had two hospitals, the Beika City Hospital in the most run down district and the New Beika Infirmary in uptown. Badly the container harbor where they had the accident with the fire was closer to BCH so the ambulance was bond to bring Alice to the next hospital.

Soon Conan left the bus and made his way through the sweltering heat outside up to the hospital's yard. He passed by the cops and glared back at them. What if Alice already knew about the news? What if she'd heard it and was already panicking? A strong child that bit someone… this just sounded so much like a cannibal that he doubted Alice would be easily to convince it was just a story by a lunatic old hobo. It had been easier to convince Ran since she was never told about their adventure with the cannibals…

Conan entered the hospital and annoyed he recognized its condition seemed to be broken; the air was just as unendurable as the air outside.

"Did you hear that?"

"Of course! But… I mean do you believe it? A child… my god!"

"Yeah! But Ito-san really seemed to be gone…"

"Right! And poor Sekai-chan… she said she can barely remember anything…"

Conan's moves froze while he heard the two nurses exchange whispers behind the counter. Was everybody talking about this now? He rushed over to the stairs and nearly flew up to room 2111. Every person he passed by seemed to be talking about the news, some didn't believe the old hobo, others weren't sure and with every further opinion he heard his hope, Alice hadn't heard about it yet, kept shrinking. Gasping he reached Alice's room and pushed open the door without wasting time on knocking. The first thing he spotted was the TV, its monitor was black and for a moment he smiled; maybe Alice really didn't knew it, but then his eyes wandered over to the bed and the little girl sitting on it had doubtlessly heard everything.

Like a doll Alice was sitting on the bed. She was dressed up and her things were packed together except one last bag that was still open. She was looking at the floor with empty eyes and her little hands clenched the white blanket so her ankles had turned white. Conan could nearly see what happened; like a movie played in his mind he saw Alice happily packing together her stuff and then, when she was about to close her last bag, maybe two nurses passed by her open room door. She froze, her eyes widened while the snickering nurses chattered over the hobo's story and the little girl in the room stopped what she was doing and sat down on the bed, waiting for the world to work again.

"H…hey" he began; he tried to make his voice sound like nothing had happened. "Y…you're ready?" Alice wasn't moving, Conan just saw her grab on the blanket increasing.

"Ran missed you!... We all did… oh and the detective boys…"

Conan was interrupted by Alice getting up from the bed; her hands were still clenched to fists. Slowly she walked over to the open bag and pulled its zipper close. All silent the two kids carried the bags out of the room, out of the hospital and into the bus. Even though Conan did his best to avoid it, he glared at Alice every few minutes. Her look had stood empty and her whole body seemed to be tensed and Conan was pondering… Should he continue his innocent play? Should he maybe ask her if she'd even heard about the news? Maybe she hadn't. Maybe she wasn't shocked but angry… maybe he'd done something wrong while picking her up and now she was angry he wasn't talking to her.

"It's true… isn't it?" Alice's mumbled question made every further thought like this unnecessary. Yes she had heard it and no… his innocent play wouldn't do any good so he sighed and shook his head.

"Lil, come on. A crazy hobo and a venally news channel... Do I have to say anything further?"

She made a noise that sounded like a choked snicker "I knew you'd say that. I really did... But Shinichi… the way he described it…"

"The way he described it was the way every wannabe author would describe a monster-child." He gave her an encouraging smile she answered with a halfhearted nod. Just like he'd expected, Alice thought she'd done this. Did she really believe the remedy hadn't properly worked? Conan twisted his mouth. That was exactly what he wanted to avoid… now Alice would start to worry again, wince whenever something like this happens and the singing would stop again…

Conan didn't want that to happen… Deciding he needed to do something he reached for her hand and laid it against his own hand so both lay palm to palm. "Push" he ordered while Alice looked at him with big eyes. "Push" he repeated since she didn't move.

He felt the girl slightly pressing her hand against his. "Tsk, do you call that pushing? More, come on."

Alice raised an eyebrow, but finally she increased her push on his hand so she slightly made his arm buckle."Poor" he commented and pulled his hand away and looked at it; pretending he'd examine it. "Sorry to say, but you can't keep up with a cannibal." Alice blinked.

"You see?" Conan smiled "how can you be scared being a cannibal when you're not even able to push my hand properly away? The _"monster-child"_ has defeated a grown up man who, likely, fought for his life." He glared at Alice who'd also pulled back her hand and examined it now, finally she curled her lips and he saw true relief on her face. "So it really wasn't me?" she asked and focused her eyes on his like she was waiting for a trace of doubt but he smirked. "Of course not, baka!" he replied like he'd have to explain a child that 1+1 just couldn't be 3.

The rest of their journey turned out to be a lot more fun. Alice complained about the horrible hospital and they had a little fight either if _'crazy hobo'_ was now rude or simply the truth and soon they reached the office of the Mori-tantei-agency where they heaved up Alice's bags into her and Ran's room. And Conan was sure Alice had chosen the two heaviest bags on purpose, likely just to make sure she was really not able to carry them on her own.

Of course she was not and Conan watch her useless tries for some time till he helped her while the sky above them slowly grew dark and cloudy. A summer storm was coming up.

* * *

-Alice-

Alice took step after step, carefully holding her hands stretched out into the darkness to prevent herself from running into something within this absolute darkness. She tried to blink again, it didn't help. There was not the slightest trace of light; she could also be blind, she wasn't able to see a thing. "We should be used to it, ne?" out of the blue a voice had appeared, it came from beneath her, not on her ear level, a little deeper, maybe on the level of her upper legs.

She winced and turned around to where she guessed the voice to come from, of course it was useless, she couldn't see a thing. "I mean, we spend our whole life in darkness, not knowing a thing when we are born and we rely on people who are exactly as helpless as we are; blind people trusting other blind people."

Alice knew the voice, since a few days it always appeared in her dreams. It always said such horrible things, things Alice once had thought, back then in the darkest hours of her life and it said them with a calm and calculating voice. Alice hated this the most. Not the things the voice said, but the way it said them… it made them sound logical and she hated that.

"Go away…" she whispered. "I just say humans are funny creatures. They are born into a horrible world and grow used to it; that used that they are afraid of leaving it again" they voice added.

"Go away" Alice repeated louder. "Afraid of every changed, everything that is differ…"

"GO AWAYYY!" Alice shouted and the voice kept quiet. Shivering and with her hands clenched to fists Alice stood in the middle of the darkness. She felt whatever used this voice was still there, right to her left side, on the level of her upper legs. Likely it just glared up to her. "I hate it to see you suffer" the voice said gently and grabbed her hand. Alice winced. She wanted to pull her hand away but she couldn't. The touch of the hand was the first thing she'd felt after hours of walking though darkness and finally there was someone with her. She wasn't alone any…

"No!" she protested and pulled her hand away. She started to walk on. "Will you leave me alone?" the voice asked with a little whining in its tone. "No" Alice replied calmly. "I can't, but I'm leading us, not you."

"Ok" the voice agreed and grabbed her hand again; Alice pulled it on.

For a moment they just walked side by side.

"Do you know where we're going?" the voice asked, lowly just like it was scared Alice would scream again.

"No."

"I'd know a place we…"

"No."

"Oh…ok…"

Again they remained silent when the voice asked again. "Are you scared" and in its voice a little smiled seemed to be hidden.

"Yes"

"Because you alone?"

"…"

"Because you can't see a thing?"

"…"

"Ok… you don't need to tell m…"

"I'm not alone."

Alice felt the thing with the voice suddenly stopping to walk; she dragged it on.

"But here's no one else but you… well and me, but I don't count" the voice dug deeper.

"He doesn't need to be here to prevent me from being alone" Alice finally said and the voice sighed. "Phew, you're horribly boring when you start acting romantic."

"What's special about him? Why can he prevent you from being alone and no one else?" the voice asked on and somehow the tone sounded curious; not evil, not laughing… just curious.

"I don't know… There're many reasons."

"Oh… ok… do you think you will see him again?"

"I'm sure" Alice added, she wasn't sure but she hoped it. As soon as this dream, or nightmare, or whatever, was over.

"Is it worth the waiting?" the voice asked.

"Mhmhm" Alice nodded, somehow she couldn't get rid of the feeling the voice wasn't just asking to kill the time. Alice closed her eyes fast; the light in front of her dazzled her. "An exit!" she cheered and started to run up to the light. Suddenly the little hand slipped away and Alice stopped. The light was now enough to see her own body, she was Lilly again and she wore the white dress again. Also she saw they had walked through a huge dark corridor.

"I'm waiting, too… you see?" the voice mumbled. Lilly saw that it had stopped in the dark part of the corridor so she still wasn't able to see it. "I… I'm waiting since ages. I nearly gave up hope, but here it is." Lilly blinked while she saw the little body of the voice stretch out its small hand into the bright part of the corridor, it pointed at the light. "HERE IT IS!" it shouted and burst out into a lunatic laughter and Lilly turned around to the light. It seemed to come through a huge wooden door into their dark corridor, but suddenly she didn't like this light anymore, she felt safer here in the darkness.

"Go ahead" the voice ordered after it had stopped laughing and sounded oddly cruel. "You wanted to lead us, now go ahead."

"I… I don't want to" Lilly started but hushed up. The body of the voice had just stepped out into the light. Lilly glared at it with wide eyes. "N… no way" she stuttered frightened while the little body of a child walked up to her and grabbed her hand, now that she saw it, she finally remembered she'd heard this voice millionth of times. "Let's go, the show is about to start and I want us to have a good view-out."  
"Y…you are…" Lilly begun while the strong little hand pulled her with it up to the light. It was dressed all in black, its dress was smeared with old blood and its brown, curly hair was messy bound together with a black bow. It turned its pale face around to her and smiled, its brown eyes slightly quintet in anticipation. "I'm no one" the voice cheeped. "I'm you… and at the same time I'm not…"

Lilly shook her head unbelieving while the little girl pulled her on. This little girl she saw every day in the mirror since some month… ever since they got shrunk by the black organization. It looked a little more battered than she did and of course it was blood strained but all in all she looked at her 7-year old body while she was stuck in her 17-year old body. Black and white, both now entering the room behind the door; the room that had dipped the black corridor into light.

* * *

-Doctor Ito-

Kenzo Ito sat up. Slowly he looked around. He sat on the dirty ground of some kind of depot and seemingly he had spent some time lying on this ground, judging from all the dust on his white overall. The monotone sound of rain that fell on the roof of the depot and the ground outside was audible. Ito blinked; it was all dark around him… at least he believed this, since the only light came from the crescent moon outside. It didn't bother him though, he couldn't see too well anyways.

He sniffed; since his eyes weren't properly working this seemed the next logical thing to do. He smelled the rain, the stuffy air around with all its dust. He sniffed on, he could now also recognize the faint smell of fish; _"maybe I'm at a harbor… or at the sea"_ he pondered. But he could smell even more, maybe some feet away a half wet cigar was still burning, and he smelled the eau-de-Cologne of a man and the perfume of a woman even further away.

He sniffed again. "Stop that." A sharp voice made him stop and he nearly choked since he stopped breathing in that suddenly. Coughing he tried to spot who had spoken but still his eyes weren't really working, so (as silent and inconspicuous as possible so the voice wouldn't recognize) he sniffed once again. He must have oversniffed this smell the last time since he was busy with sniffing into the other direction… but now he tried it again he soon understood he could simply not smell it; somehow it was like the owner of the voice was merged with the air and the rain around.

Finally Ito stopped sniffing and the voice spoke again. "How are you?" it asked. Ito recognized now that his ears worked quite well; he could hear the voice through the pouring rain and he heard even more, he heard steps; the footsteps of two feet walking up to him over the wet ground outside and then those feet entered the depot. Doubtlessly those feet belonged to the owner of the voice.

Judging from what Ito heard he could tell the speaker was small and thin. Finally Ito recognized he hadn't answered the question of the voice, yet.

"U…uhm, I'm fine… just a little tired" he stuttered; it seemed like he hadn't used his voice in a while and so he was nearly surprised he was able to speak.

"I don't care how you feel" the voice replied cruelly and now Ito understood the speaker didn't want to be polite with its question… but what exactly did it want to know? The voice sighed and continued "how are your ears, eyes and nose? Can you stand up? How does your head feel?" the speaker questioned him and somehow Ito suddenly felt like a dog that is examined about what it was able to do.

Usually Ito had now started to threw some questions back, but half unwilling he just replied "my nose and ears work great, my eyes make me see everything a little blurry; and if I can stand up…" slowly Ito stood up, supporting himself with his hands on the dirty ground. "Yeah, I can" he declared, though he felt it took him some concentration to keep balance.

Again he heard footsteps, the owner of the voice walked closer to him and automatically Ito tensed. For some reason he didn't want the speaker to think something bad about him; for a reason he wanted the speaker to be… proud of him. Ito couldn't tell why he felt the way he did, he only knew he did; and this feeling of respect towards the voice slowly drowned every other thing; for example the fact that he barely knew the speaker, or that it was doubtlessly a child.

After some seconds of silence Ito could hear the child walk again. It was walking around him, closely and judging from his blurry view it was examining Ito. "Very well" the voice mumbled satisfied and Ito's chest was swollen with pride. "Do you know who you are?" the speaker asked out loud and (bent on showing his cleverness) Ito said "yes. I am Kenzo Ito. 46-years old. I am doctor in the Beika City Hospital and married to Fumiko Ito. We have two children, they…"

"Ok, ok" the voice interrupted him and stopped walking. Ito could see the small, blurry silhouette in front of him. "So you would still be able to work as a doctor… I mean, do you remember studying medicine and the other stuff from your old life?" The voice sounded hesitatingly… cold, calculating and authoritative, but also hesitatingly like this situation was something whole new to it.

"Yes" Ito answered "everything from the past… my eyes aren't really good, but I could work without them; I smell and hear enough so they are needless." Ito saw the silhouette slowly nodding then it spoke again. "Ok, now listen. You will go back into the Beika City Hospital. You will resume your role as a doctor and family man. And…"

"Uhm, what exactly happened to me?" Ito interrupted the voice, he felt a little uneasy doing this, but he wanted to ask this ever since he woke up and the speaker doubtlessly knew more about what was going on than Ito did. The voice made a sound like suppressing a sigh and replied.

"I turned you into a cannibal, now…"

"A cannibal? What is that? Do you mean those people who eat people? Did you do that? And what is going to happen? Oh and…"

"Shut up!" the voice hissed and Ito stopped asking. He was still bent to do what the voice told him. After a moment of silence the voice continued "ok, listen, because I will only say that once. A cannibal is similar to… a zombie I believe. We don't feel pain, we are strong and we eat humans. Well actually we want to, it's the only thing we can eat… we don't need to though, we don't starve."

Ito opened his mouth, _'we'_ made him want to ask if the voice was a cannibal too, but the voice just spoke on. "What leads us to the next and _most important_ point; you will not eat any humans! You won't attack them; you won't take a little bite; NOTHING. Also you have to know that being a cannibal is contagious, it's transmitted through salvia, so make sure not to kiss anyone and don't share cups, glasses, chopsticks, etc with anyone. Did you get that?"

Ito nodded and since the voice didn't spoke anymore he asked again "And why did you chose me master?"

He saw the silhouette tilting his head and hesitantly he replied "don't call me like that."

"What should I call you then?" Ito asked, he thought 'master' pretty much fitted.

"You call me nothing. After this night you will forget me for the present, you will know who I am when I contact you again."

"What…?" Ito began, but the voice interrupted him "everything you have to know is that it was because you work in the BCH and are quite important there. So again: make sure you will do your job there and don't tell anyone about what happened to you! Just pretend nothing happened, if people ask you what happened tell them a druggy robbed you and you needed a break for some days."

Ito hesitated; he didn't care he was a cannibal now, who was seemingly dead and only wanted to eat human flesh, neither that he may infect his family… there was just 1 thing that worried him. "I… I don't feel like eating humans" he mumbled. He felt sorry for that, this would maybe disappoint or anger the voice and Ito wanted to avoid that.

"This will come soon enough… if it comes make sure to keep in mind not to eat anything. If the urge gets too strong get yourself some raw meat; that helps. But don't worry."

The voice seemed suddenly to be much more cheerful. "If my plan works the way I want it to, it won't get that far… If my plan works, you will be allowed to do whatever you want within some days."

The silhouette turned away and walked out into the rain while suddenly it burst out into a horrible laughter that gave Ito the chills "If it works within some days _everyone_ will be allowed to do whatever they want!" And with this it vanished and left back Ito, who blinked a few times, the turned around and went home.

* * *

_Please leave a review to help me improve :}_


	5. Sweets

**_[Act 5] - ||Sweets||_**

-Ai-

"Hmhm, it's pretty neat but… I dunno rosé… for me?"

"It would be a good contrast to your dark hair"

"Yeah, but my pale skin and this bright colour…?"

Ai smiled amused and turned the page with the summer dresses over. She and Alice were sitting on the floor in the room she shared with Ran and wasted the afternoon with going through some of Ai's fashion magazines. Ai looked up from the magazine and watched Alice. She sat on her legs on the fluffy carpet just some inches away from Ai. Her curly hair fell slightly into her face while her brown eyes were running over the pages just like she was studying for school, a new subject she had still difficulties to understand.

Ai suppressed the urge to reach out her hand and touch Alice just to make sure she was really there. Just some time ago Ai's life consisted of nothing but working in a laboratory with an evil organization in her neck… and Alice? She had been the daughter of a cruel woman who wanted her as her functor in England; going to marry a man she didn't love.

And now this all suddenly had changed. Like they were normal girls they were sitting together and wasting time. Sure the organization was still there… and so was Alice mother, but not at this moment. Ai lowered her head back to her magazine before Alice would recognize her staring. This moment wasn't pretend… it was real, one of the few real moments were they could be Lilly and Shiho.

Ai felt her mood darkening, even though she tried to fight it. This moment would pass… and then there would be their dark future again. Out of the blue she felt a tickling at her forehead and looked up into Alice's smiling face. She lowered the hand she'd just whipped some streaks of Ai's hair away. "Hehe gomen, I couldn't resist, you looked so lost in thoughts."

Smiling Alice got up and Ai nearly wanted to call after her, but Alice turned around without Ai making a sound. "Want some tea? I could die for a cup." A little confused Ai nodded and happily Alice left the room to cook tea. Ai breathed out through her nose and closed the magazine. She couldn't decided whether she should try to stay alert or should start to get used to this life… she knew what she wanted but she wasn't sure if she could risk it. The organization was nothing one could ignore… no matter how much one wanted to.

While thinking, Ai's eyes had followed some sunbeams that were sliding over the carpet, slowly running up to the window and the setting sun, but now her eyes were stuck on some thin white sticks on a hankie on the carpet. Ai blinked and got up. Alice had brought the hankie for them to put the packaging of their sweets onto it so they didn't have to stand up ever and anon… but those white sticks caught Ai's attention.

On the hankie there were some stalks of cherries, packing of chewing gum and those white sticks… those sticks that always stuck in lollipops… 8 of them. Ai tilted her head, she had visited Alice an hour ago… the hankie had been empty then… now there were 8 sticks… 8 eaten lollipops… Ai had only eaten cherries and chewing gum.

The door opened and Alice entered the room with a tablet and two cups of steaming tea. "I hope peppermint is ok" Alice said smiling and both sat down. "No sugar in mine?" Ai asked and Alice shook her head "just like you like it… right?" Ai nodded and sipped some of the tea; her eyes were still glued to her friend. "And… in yours?" Alice bliked "uhm… yeah, I always put sugar in my tea…" Alice tried a laugh but Ai saw she grew insecure. "I see… and you eat… 8 of these in an hour?" Ai continued, pointing at the lollipop-sticks and Alice smiled embarrassed "well yeah… I got sweet tooth today, you know?" But Ai lowered her cup "seemingly… also your breakfast was a bar of chocolate."

"O…oh, was it?" Alice mumbled evasively. Ai knew Alice had always been fond of sweet things, but this was even too much for her. "You still think you could have done it?" Ai finally asked, knowing this would quit the nice afternoon together. Alice lowered her cup of tea and looked away. So that was why she had only eaten sweet stuff today… she thought a possible infection could be cured with a high dose of the antidote; sugar. "Sorry" Alice said and destroyed Ai's feeling she'd finally understood her friend. "S…sorry? For what?"

Alice shook her head "I know you all want to forget about it… I also want to! But… I just wanted to be 100% sure. So… sorry, I didn't want you to worry about me." Somewhere in the neighbor hood a car started to honk and an odd way of silence, interrupted by this shrill noise crowded the two girls.

"Is that why you asked if Kudo is ok? Because he worries 'bout you?" Ai asked and Alice turned her head over to her with a sad smile "he works day and night to find the person who hijacked Ito… I think he wants to proof that it wasn't me… I just wonder if he wants only to give _me_ a proof…"

Ai made a move like jumping forward while sitting, but broke it off and sat back again. "You don't really think he doubts you!" she asked, not sure why it worried her that much. The whole time Alice doubted herself Ai was always sure this was nonsense… but if Kudo…

"I… can't tell" Alice mumbled "we barely talk at the moment. If we do he seems 100% sure it hadn't been me who attack the doctor… but I still don't believe he would be this… naïve." Alice ran her fingers in circles through the fluffy carpet, but Ai knitted her eyebrows angrily "you are such an idiot! Geez; you let some weird dreams drive you crazy! You don't show any symptoms, do you? You aren't pale, or want to eat people or ANYTHING like that, right? You always trust Kudo's sixth sense, why don't you this time? Why are you always this dumb when you are concerned in something yourself?"

Out of sheer frustration Ai banged her fist on Alice's head; not hard but both girls were surprised for a moment that Ai had just clouted Alice, for the first time in her life; then Alice clapped her hands over her head and both girls burst out in laughter. It took them quite some time to recollect themselves before Alice, with little teardrops in the corners of her eyes (at least Ai had just clouted her), spoke again. "Looks like deserved this one" she mumbled carefully stroking her head "my, now I know how Conan feels when Kogoro clouts him." Again both snickered and Ai replied "gomen, but you can be such a moron."

While the sun slowly set behind the city Ai kinda waited for Alice to get her sad mood back, but somehow her little attack really seemed to have helped. And after she'd make sure Alice was ok they said goodbye. "What are you going to do now?" Ai asked, inwardly waiting for a sign that Alice would continue her sugar-diet, but Alice smiled. "I gotta talk to Shinichi; I don't want him to worry anymore." Ai nodded, glad that she'd somehow actually helped her friend and satisfied she walked back home.

* * *

-Doctor Ito-

"Geez Kenzo-kun didn't you always love my tempura?" Ito heard his wife complain but he had already closed the door to his working room. Three days ago Ito's whole life had changed; he had become a cannibal and enjoyed it very much. Suddenly there was a feeling of strength within him he'd never felt before, it was addicting so Ito didn't bothered too much about its disadvantages. He didn't care he couldn't be close to his family anymore or that he only saw everything quite blurry. Also he learned to hide his aversion to common food and allayed his hunger with raw flesh from the butcher some blocks away.

The only thing that slowly tortured Ito was the fact the person who made all this possible didn't show up anymore. He couldn't even tell if this person would stand right behind him since he hadn't noticed its smell or appearance, so Ito needed to wait and ignore his deep wish to talk to it again.

His pocket started to vibrate; Ito sighed. He hated attendance but unwillingly he reached for his phone; _'Unknown caller'_.

If Ito's heart wouldn't have turned worryingly silent since he became a cannibal it would now have started to beat fast. Slightly shivering he answered the call. "Ito-san?"

Ito's eyes widened in joy, this was doubtlessly the voice! It really called him! "H…hai" he replied; to happy to speak properly. "Can you speak free?" it continued, sounding oddly polite. "Of course!" Ito cheered and the politeness of the voice vanished. "Good. Anything special these days?" Ito shook his head… then he recognized this was useless since the voice couldn't see him and spoke. "No!... Oh, I started eating flesh" he explained proudly; the voice ignored it. "Did you get the information I wanted?"

"The ones from the forbidden laboratories?" Ito asked and heard an angry hissing through the phone, so he fast continued "o…of course! You only wanted these" he laughed embarrassed "yeah, I got them. Should I bring them to you?"

"NO!" the voice replied loudly "just sent me a photo of the information I wanted."

"Ok" Ito agreed and lowered the phone; hastily he got out the papers he stole from the laboratories. The voice had asked him to find out more about the disease that was freed in an elementary half a year ago (it told him it was the same disease that made them that strong). Ito made photos; photos of the paragraph that spoke about the disease and the remedy; sugar; of the paragraph that was about the mutation of the disease through an unknown drug within the body of a girl; of the paragraph about the experiments on mice and some others.

Finally Ito was done and sent all of them; the voice spoke again. "Great, that's all for now, stay ready in BCH; it will begin soon." And with these the voice seemingly wanted to quit the call so Ito fast interrupted. "B… but Master I already ate sugar!" and Ito felt choked. The voice growled "I told you not to call me like this! And don't worry, sugar may was a remedy; it isn't anymore." Ito could hear a low laughing "We are a new type of cannibals; smarter, stronger and resistant against sugar; trust me I just eat a lot sugar today; no effect." Ito beamed "Great ok M… ok!" And with this the call had reached its end.

For some time Ito still listened to the monotone peeping that followed the voice hanging up and smiled. The voice was great and Ito would stay ready; ready for whatever the voice planned; because he knew it would be spectacular.

* * *

-Conan-

(H)

(yup ^^ this *points up at the "(H)"* is the first ecchi-warning-H ;3)

Conan's eyes wandered over the monitor of the PC standing in the tantei-agency; he had brought it down on a table for him to reach with the chair not adjusted too high. Yet he hadn't switched on the light. Kogoro and Ran were gone for the whole day and Alice wanted to meet Ai so he had had the whole day for his research. He blinked; his eyes slowly got exhausted from his all-day-research. A low squeaking disturbed the silence but Conan ignored it; likely it came from the nightly street outside. Once again he scanned a text on a board that talked about what the hobo said about the _'monster child'_.

"Ne… Shinichi." A voice made him tense and look up from the PC. Alice had entered the room (what explained the squeaking form before) and was now looking at him; standing there in the darkness she looked like a ghost; bright and unreal. "Kogoro and Ran are back; they already head for bed."

He smiled and nodded "ok… thanks." And with this he waited for Alice to leave again; she didn't move what supported the unreal look. Suddenly a trace of emotion made Alice's eyes squint. "I didn't see you all day" she said; it wasn't much of a reproach… more a request. Slowly Conan rubbed the back of his head "sorry… I just wanted to take the chance being alone to do some research." Alice nodded. She looked so lost, alone there in the darkness, no matter she was only some inches away from him; she could also be in another country. Slowly she walked up to him; he turned the chair around and found Alice suddenly hugging him.

He blinked surprised. It wasn't the way she hugged him usually; not because she was happy… but also not because she needed shelter. She hugged him close and brought her face close to his. "Please don't worry" she mumbled and finally he understood she tried to comfort him. "I… I'm not…" he began and Alice disengaged herself out of the hug and looked at him with serious eyes. "Onegai! I know you want to proof it wasn't me, but I will stop worrying… so you have, too." Conan tilted his head "really?" Alice nodded, still serious and he finally smiled agreeing. "Let me just finish this, ok?" he asked and pointed at the PC and though Alice look darkened she nodded so Conan turned around to the monitor again and clenched his teeth.

"You're ok?" Alice asked and he saw her reflection in the monitor raising an eyebrow. "Hmhm, I just have a little headache" he answered and rubbed his neck. Alice reflection looked annoyed. "Of course you've headache, sitting all day in front of the PC would make everyone's neck tense." He rolled his eyes "right, I'll head for bed soon mum."

Instead of the expected sharp answered he felt a sudden pressure on his back. First he thought she might pinch him for his comment, but since the pressure didn't vanish but slowly moved up his back he knew she was doing something absolute different. "Higher?" she asked in a voice like one asked what weather it is today and Conan wondered with wide eyes "wh…what…?"

"Headache is often a result of tensed muscles; I know you well enough to see you won't head for bed in hours, so this should help." With a glowing face he blinked all confused, her way of speaking about this like about a task in biology class made him doubt if he was right what she was doing. By this time he felt the pressure wander up between his shoulder blades and with a quick heartbeat Conan felt Alice's delicate fingers massaging some especially tensed points in his back.

For a moment he wanted to turn around but Alice interrupted him "don't move. If I slip off I could make your headache even worse. And so Conan remained motionless on his seat and when Alice's hands reached the beginning of his neck it gave him goose bumps.

"My, you're really tensed" she mumbled while he felt her hands now starting to massage his shoulders and he suppressed a laugh. _"Of course I am, but this has nothing to do with me sitting at the PC all day"_ he thought slowly feeling some muscles near his neck relaxing. Insecure he slowly closed his eyes to exclude the artificial light of the monitor and allowed Alice to continue for some moments. To his surprise it seemed to work. His headache didn't fully vanish but it slowly grew acceptable and then slowly, so he nearly didn't recognize it, Alice's hands slit forward across his chest and she hugged him. "Got you" she mumbled happily after she'd brought her face close to his, so he could feel her warm breath on his skin.

Bent not to let her think she'd just confused him with this (what she had indeed) he slowly turned around on the chair and brought his face close to hers, trying to look all calm. Satisfied he recognized her face being red too and slowly they came closer. Shortly before they met for a kiss both hesitated. Even later he couldn't tell who stopped first, but in the end both backed off. "Alice… I didn't…" he began an excuse; he didn't want her to think he had stopped because he doubted her, but she shook her head and interrupted him. "It's ok" she said but rushed out of the room without a further word.

Motionless Conan looked after her; she hadn't been angry. At least she had also hesitated… but he knew at this moment she was hurt and he couldn't help it.

* * *

_Please leave a review to help me improve :}_


	6. Open the curtain

**_[Act 6] - ||Open the curtain||_**

-The Cannibal-

It left the house sometime around 2 p.m. Of course no one recognized it leaving, who should? They were all sleeping, waiting for another day to start; but it didn't need sleep. It spent its night mostly with planning; the plan was good but at the moment too much could go wrong so that was why it needed to infect a second person.

Until now it had done its best to avoid infecting people (well except doctor Ito); hunger was allayed with raw meat, anger and instincts were suppressed and all in all everything went swimmingly. Ok, to be 100% true to itself the little cannibal had to admit that the coming event was also triggered by anger. Reminded of what just happened it clenched its teeth. It had nearly messed everything up… nearly it had grown weak and infected its beloved, but it had been able to stop. "Too early" it reminded itself mumbling, sooner than later the moment to spread its skills would be there.

With all these thoughts on its mind the little cannibal walked through the nightly Beika. Barely anyone was around to stop and wonder what a child was doing at such a time outside, but those soon walked on. Even if they weren't just drunkards, they'd never recognized how dangerous the child really was they had just met. This time its infection hadn't made itself felt this hard. It hadn't grown pail, it hadn't started to eat humans without a plan… ok there were other symptoms like the worrying lack of heartbeat Ito had recognized, too and of course the high level of power.

A wide smile curled the cannibal's lips and turned into the little street it had aimed. Nearly every room behind all those windows were dark; also here the people wasted their time with sleeping away the rare time they had. The cannibal stopped walking and looked through the list of names on the doorbell panel. Finally it found what it searched for _'T__suyama, Sekai'_.

Nearly jolly the cannibal walked around the house. Sekai's apartment was lying in the ground floor what even made the cannibal's preparation to climb unnecessary, when it saw that just out of Sekai's apartment (which lay on the street-adverted-side) was coming some flickering blue light it hardly suppressed the feeling of pity. This poor woman, infecting her was nearly that easy that the cannibal thought it could also have made Ito, the idiot, do it.

As silent as possible, but still with a relaxed interest in what it was doing for the first time, the cannibal broke the lock on the window with a small screwdriver and pushed the window open. For a moment it hesitated; a squeak made it wince but soon it recognized it came from the TV that was still showing a horror movie and hid, with its sounds, every single noise the cannibal made. Again it smiled; _"a faked horror story distracts you from the real horror you just live in dear Tsuyama-san"_ it thought while walking up to the armchair the young woman was sitting in.

The cannibal soon was able to look over the shoulder of its victim. Halfhearted she watched the movie but ever and anon her eyes seemed to wander to a close wall or something… likely she still remembered what had happened to Doctor Ito. Today the cannibal had ordered Ito to return to his life; this was necessary. It needed a powerful supporter within the hospital it chose as the place from where the whole world would change; and this was just why it now had to infect Sekai.

The young nurse had been with Ito and even if she hadn't clearly seen the cannibal while it faked being unconscious, she may would start to ask questions when Ito returned since she had been this close when he vanished; and she would never believe an actual adult had attacked Ito; she must have seen at least that it had been a child.

The cannibal blinked and vanished behind the armchair again; still Sekai hadn't recognized it. Being this long this close to a human being the cannibal had no memory as a friend of was hardly to stand. It felt every part of its body longing for a bite; a huge bite actually and that wasn't what it wanted at the moment. It wasn't here to kill. _"I'll talk to her"_ it decided fast. There was no time to do this another day; Ito would return tomorrow and maybe making this girl shiver and beg for her life would help to allay the desire to tear her apart.

The cannibal soon decided for a way to shock her and simply stepped next to the arm chair so Sekai's elbow was just an inch away from its ear. It blinked; nothing happened… no scream, no _'wh… who are you?'_-scream… Actually the woman hadn't recognized it yet. The cannibal sighed inwardly; there was a hungry monster just NEXT TO HER and she simply didn't recognize it. The cannibal pushed away all doubts if such a woman would really start to ask smart questions and turned its face to her chair; it put on a sheepish smile and said "hi there."

Finally the woman reacted. The cannibal saw her whole body stiffen and slowly, like a huge doll, the woman turned her head around to where the cannibal was standing. Sekai's eyes widened and she backed off to the other side of the armchair so she was now sitting on its armrest. "Y… you! What are you doing here?" she gasped.

"I just wanted to visit you" it replied; it seriously enjoyed this little horror show. Sekai pointed a finger at its face. "I… I saw you in the hospital!" and slowly she calmed down "my, you scared me to death!" and with a eased sigh she got up and looked around, seemingly looking how it had made its way into her apartment and the she spotted the open window. "Geez, you can't just entered the apartments of strangers, you know?" and with these words the young woman walked to the window and closed it; likely she wanted to avoid anyone else coming in but naively she had just blocked her own escape.

"So, what are you doing here?" she asked after kneeling down to the cannibal. The cannibal remembered her way to treat children a little clumsy she'd shown in the hospital and replied. "I came to get you."

"Get me to where?" Sekai asked still this naive that the cannibal nearly felt sorry; well nearly. "To where Ito is" it said and lowered its head a little so it had to look up to see Sekai, also it had stopped smiling what was pretty hard since this was a whole lot of fun. But it served its purpose. Sekai's face grew all pale and her eyes widened. "Ito-san should still be in hospital" Sekai replied unsecure, but seemingly still trying to find a logical reason why a little child was now standing in her living room in the middle of the night and talked to her about Ito who she saw being hijacked.

But within seconds all this doesn't seem to matter to her anymore; at least as far as the cannibal could tell. It hadn't been able to stand her naivety much longer so it fast sank its teeth into her bare skin and infected the young woman that fast that she wasn't even able to scream. If now because of a shock or because the contagious disease was now spreading in her veins the woman fell unconscious and allowed the little cannibal to drag her over into her bedroom and clean up the blood.

While doing so the little monster kept shivering hardly. With all its power it controlled itself from succumbing the urge to get more of this blood, this flesh and taste of live, but it succeeded. It had cleaned the apartment and now waited in front of the TV for its new supporter to wake up; still shivering from its inner struggle.

* * *

-Ai-

"My Lilly-kun you look exhausted" Agasa-hakase pushed a bowl of rice over the table to where Alice was sitting while he examined her worriedly. Alice gave him a small smile and reached for the chopsticks. "I'm just a little bit tired" she replied and slowly started to empty the bowl. Ai, who was sitting in front of Agasa's PC turned her head back to the monitor.

Yesterday when she went home she'd really thought Alice had made some progress. But when they all met to go to school today, since Alice was finally allowed to do so, Ai saw that nothing had changed. She sighed lowly and switched off the PC. _'Nothing had changed'_ may was wrong. Alice hadn't mentioned cannibals through the whole day, also whenever someone asked her if she's ok, since a single look in her face told everyone she had have a hard night, she just smiled and replied _'I'm just a little bit tired'_.

Ai hopped down from the chair and mumbled something about _'looking what Kudo is doing'_ to excuse her leaving for her laboratory. When their little group including the detective boys walked home Conan pulled Ai aside and told her he needed to talk to her in private. Ai could tell from his look he didn't want Alice to go home all by herself so Ai pretended to invite both to come to her after school. _'I bought this magazine we talked about yesterday'_ was what she told Alice and Alice had smiled the smile she used the whole day and thanked her. With a dark mood Ai soon entered her laboratory; Alice had brought this mask-smile to perfection. While she wore this smile one could never tell what she was thinking or feeling.

"Stop that" Ai ordered right after closing the door to stop the tantei from going through her papers. "Gomen" he excused and Ai just shrugged. She slowly grew used that he just wasn't able to stop being a detective. "Is she ok?" Conan asked the question Ai was asking herself since days; of course he just wanted to know if the hakase kept her busy while they were down in the laboratory. Ai nodded "seemingly the professor tries to fatten her, when I left he offered her the fourth bowl of rice."

Conan shortly smiled, both likely had the same idea that the hakase tried to make up for his lack of food, as a result of the diet, with offering people a hilarious amount of what was denied to him. "And I bet she hasn't refused one of them" Conan replied bitterly and Ai nodded again "of course not, she's in her 'say-yes-to-everything'-mode, what is pretty impressing. The hakase's cooking is gross and she also didn't seem to like it."

Ai looked down on the floor; just yet she recognized how it hurt her that she hadn't been able to cheer Alice permanently up… A sudden silence interrupted their conversation, it felt wrong; Ai knew that and she knew Conan felt it too. Being down here just to talk about their friend felt worryingly like cheating on her.

Finally Conan broke the silence "there's something I need to ask you… You met her yesterday, right? Did you talk about this… _'stuff'_?" Ai narrowed her eyes on Conan, his voice had been oddly emotionless while asking, like he intensely tried to sound normal, and his eyes were avoiding hers; he looked pretty much like a child one had caught while breaking a window and that now tried to find out how bad its failure was. "Uhm, yeah. I told her to trust you and she seemed to agree on that. Lucky you, Lilly is thinking highly of you and your opinion" Ai admitted, still skeptical "and when I left I thought she's ok… I mean she really seemed to be eased and just wanted to talk to… you…" Ai's look grew annoyed. With an acid tone she stepped closer to him "what did you do?"

"N…nothing!" he began and the fact that his voice grew slightly higher told Ai she was right with her suspicion "what did you do? How did the brilliant tantei mess it up this time?" she dug deeper with her hands on her hips. Finally he sighed resigning and rubbed his head "I didn't know you just told her to trust me, ok? I not that I doubted in her… I just…"

"You just what?" Ai snapped "spit it out!" Somewhere inside herself a little part felt surprised how angry this drove her; Ai knew Alice meant a lot to her, but the fact that she was this easy to anger when it came to hurting Alice was a surprise. Of course all this was just a little thought Ai pushed away fast; at the moment she wanted to focus completely on what Conan had done. "I did nothing, ok? That's the problem… we… Ok yesterday we came close…" Conan replied, his voice switching between anger and embarrassment. Ai raised an eyebrow "close? How close?"

"Close" he snapped and Ai sighed "you fooled around, I see." His face went highly red "NO! NOT THIS WAY OF CLOSE!" when Conan recognized he was screaming he stopped. Then he cleared his throat and with a still red face he continued more calmly "I mean 'close' more like a location than a… level of a relationship."

Ai curled her lips and swallowed down all those nice little comments her mind came up with so she simply nodded to tell him to continue his explanation. On the one hand because she needed to find out why Alice was this sad again and on the other hand because nothing she could say could be as mean as just forcing him to continue this conversation, which was obviously a source of embarrassment to him.

"Well and before we… kissed" he finally continued and his voice grew lower while he said _'kissed'_ just like he hope Ai wouldn't hear him "we stopped… I mean both of us. And that's it… I mean she went away and she said she's ok…"

At one stroke Ai's malicious joy was replaced by anger. "You did what? I thought you're clever!" with the same feeling of anger and frustration she felt before while clouting Alice she banged her fist against Conan's arm. "How can you hesitate while she's this vulnerable? And then you believe her when she says she's ok?" She hit both of her fists on every part of him she could reach. "BAKA! She must think you doubt her!"

For some moments Ai continued hitting him while he stood there and accepted it but finally he grabbed her fists and she looked at him exhaustedly. "I didn't do that because I doubt her." He declared calmly and something in his tone prevented Ai from asking for the reason he had have.

"Excuse me for interrupting" a cold voice quitted the silence and made Ai and Conan wince. Both looked at the door where Alice was standing in the door frame and looking at them "but it is pretty rude to talk about people behind their backs."

Ai glared at her friend and couldn't help but feeling a little scared. Alice stood there all calm right between the dark staircase and the bright laboratory and her skin that had lost some color within the last days made her look like a ghost in front of the darkness; all motionless glaring at them with eyes that clearly showed a lack of sleep. All in all her face didn't show a trace of emotion, she wore a mask of hers again, just that this one wasn't smiling it just glared at Ai and Conan, not letting them know what Alice thought or felt.

"Well, but entering a room without knocking is also kinda nasty, isn't it?" Alice continued after a while and raised an eyebrow. Ai couldn't tell if the awkward silence or Alice emotionless talking was worse. "I just heard screams and wanted to know what is going on… between the both of you." Alice said entering the room what gave Ai the feeling of being trapped. Ai suddenly felt Conan letting go of her fists he had still been holding and judging from his facial expression he didn't felt trapped but still worried.

Ai opened her mouth; Alice knew she would never… Alice couldn't think Ai had tried…; Ai closed her mouth again without saying a thing. The only thing Conan and she had to feel guilty for was talking about Alice… how much had she heard anyways?

"You're right, sorry" Conan replied calmly and threw a glare back at Alice that was as cold as hers. "I just needed someone to discuss everything with and you have to admit that you aren't really the right person for that at the moment." Ai looked from Conan to Alice and back to Conan. This had been the first time ever since she knew both of them that she felt inferior to them. Usually she was the one to exchange cold glares with and either Conan or Alice had been the one to ease the situation. Now Ai saw how creepy her friends could be while being angry.

Finally Alice moved, she slightly lowered her head to an acid smile and replied "right. Well I just wanted to let you know that Ran just called me. Seemingly I got a letter; I'll head home to read it."

"All right" Conan replied and Ai wasn't sure if being this repellent to Alice was the right way to solve this odd situation. But then Alice just turned around and left, ignoring Ai completely, leaving back nothing but the urge to switch on all lights and hide under a blanket. If Ai had ever thought Conan and Alice had relationship that was based on sweet differences this had changed by now. This had shown Ai how similar both could be. Both great in understanding the feelings and thoughts of other people; both silly when they were involved themselves and now… both creepy while fighting.

"Don't worry, it wasn't as bad as you think" Conan answered Ai's unasked question. "And you are sure about that?" Ai asked skeptically and still worried. He nodded and sat down on a chair, now that Ai thought about it he also didn't look too healthy. Likely he had spent the whole night with researches and now this fight had cost him the last remnant of his energy. "Lilly is nice, caring and no one would ever think her mother is such a cruel person, but, and I hate to say that, when she gets angry this side of her, the side she maybe got from her mother, shows its face." Exhausted he ran his hands over his face "the best one can do when this happens is being calm and repellent, if you show her a weak point while she is like that she will tear you apart; metaphorically spoken."

"So you think she believes… we….?" Ai mumbled with a lump in her throat, but Conan lowered his hands and shook his head. "No. No, Lil trusts us… I think she is just scared… She is scared and tired and now that she recognized us talking about her she took this as a chance to take all her frustration out on someone else but herself."

Ai nodded and with that this awkward day had an end. Conan decided it'd be best if he would soon go home to say sorry for what happened and just before he left he turned around to Ai again. "By the way, don't expect an excuse from her. Usually she's the first one to apologize, but when one drives her that far that she acts this cruel she will just pretend nothing happened. It's a habit of hers I just thought I should tell you in advance" and with this he vanished.

* * *

-Alice-

With her hands clenched to fists Alice walked home, throwing an acid glare at every person she met on her way; including the hakase. How could they dare? Everyone kept telling her she could never be the cannibal, or whatever had attacked the doctor; nooo. They told her she was oh so strong but seemingly not strong enough to talk to her?

She banged the entrance door to the Mori-house shut behind her and walked upstairs. The hakase had distracted her so Conan and Ai could have a nice little chatter about her in private and they had shown no trace of sorrow! She nearly ran up into Ran's and her room and prayed to god Ran wouldn't be there; she just wanted to be alone. She felt so sick of everyone. How could they be this naïve? They left her alone with all her doubts because they were scared and if something would happen it would be her fault and her fault alone!

Fortunately Ran really wasn't there and so the girl dropped face-first onto Ran's bed. She couldn't drop in her futon; it was convoluted under Ran's bed. "I hate that" she murmured into Ran's blanket and growled. Her stomach felt sick, the hakase's cooking was disgusting but she had still emptied every bowl he offered her. She had promised Ai and Conan she would stop worrying and she had done her best to deliver this promise but she couldn't. These doubts kept surrounding her and pretending everything was ok was obviously not the right way.

Of course Ai and Conan had recognized she was not ok. Slowly she rolled onto her right side and recognized herself crying. She hadn't meant to be this horrible to the both of them, but when she saw the fear in Ai's eyes she couldn't help herself. She wanted revenge for all the days she was scared and Ai kept telling her that this was ridicules. She wanted Ai to be scared but now she regretted that, Ai was her friend and she had taken her anger out on her and Conan…

Alice made herself very small on the bed. One reason she wanted to stop worrying was that she knew Conan suffered with her and now she'd been such a bitch to him. She closed her eyes and felt some tears rolling over her face. Her friends hadn't told her to stop worrying because they were scared, they just wanted that Alice didn't doubt herself; she saw that of course but it wasn't that easy. She sobbed lowly; pretending one was all right won't solve any problems; she needed to do something… if she just knew what she could do…

Her brain didn't really want to work, all those past nightmares made her feel like she hadn't slept in ages and now she felt heavy clouds spreading in her mind. "Wake up dormy" a soft voice said close to her ear and if its breath hadn't been that cold she had even welcomed it.

Unwillingly she opened her eyes and found herself looking at… herself. The little Alice, all dressed in black, had brought her face close to hers and Alice was kneeling on her lap what told her she had grown to Lilly again, all dressed in white. "You were crying" Alice said plainly and Lilly ran the back of her hand over her dry eyes and put down the little cannibal-girl from her lap. "Not you again, I'm tired can't you leave me alone?" Lilly asked desperately trying not to cry again. "More alone then you are at the moment? Hihi, I doubt this is possible" the cannibal replied jolly and sat down on a chair next to Lilly.

Now that she saw that she recognized she was sitting on a chair to. Both of them were in the auditorium of a huge theatre. Their chairs were placed on a pulpit from where they had a perfect point of view onto the stage; its curtain was closed. Lilly got up and walked up to the balustrade of the pulpit (what took her some courage since the pulpit hung pretty high above the stage) and gasped. Even though she could spot many pulpits everywhere around the stage; all on the level of their own pulpit; the theatre seemed to lack a ground floor. Only the empty stage was down there, flying above a bottomless abyss.

Also the other pulpits that hung above the stage in a circle were abandoned. Lilly backed off she turned around to the only wall; the wall behind their pulpit and tried to open the door. "It's locked" Alice replied in a bored tone and when Lilly turned around to her to get some answered she saw the little girl sitting on the balustrade, her legs dangling over the abyss. She fought a little attack of dizziness only from the picture of someone sitting this high and ran up to her. She grabbed the girl and placed her on her chair again; the little cannibal kept smiling. "What do you want from me? For god's sake just tell me!" Lilly was crying; she couldn't take this anymore.

"I want you to sit down and enjoy the show" the cannibal replied happily and now Lilly had have enough. She grabbed the little girl and held her above the balustrade, ready to let her fall down in her certain death. No trace of fear entered the face of the little girl. "Killing me means killing you" it explained calmly but Lilly didn't back off. "Fine, if I have to die to prevent these horrible happenings to repeat I'll accept my death gladly."

"Sure, but it wouldn't change a thing" the cannibal said and threw a look at her that was different from all its other looks. "Please don't let me fall down" it suddenly begged "I don't want to die. I want to stay and see the show, onegai!" It grabbed Lilly's arm with its small hands and finally Lilly put it back onto the pulpit. "Ok, I'll let you see it, but first you have to tell me why it wouldn't change a thing?"

The cannibal slowly opened its mouth but a sudden tremor made it hush. Not only their pulpit but the whole weird world seemed to shake. "You forgot to read your letter" the cannibal simply said and Lilly saw its evil smile had returned. "I said I want answers, I won't leave until…!"

The cannibal snickered. "My, you should listen to yourself. You talk like you could decide anything. But don't worry; sooner or later you will see you're just a little piece in a big puzzle." It burst out into the horrible laughter Alice knew too well and while the shaking grew wilder Alice woke up.

* * *

_Please leave a review to help me improve :}_


	7. Invitation

**_[Act 7] - ||Invitation||_**

-Conan-

(H)

"Lil. Hey Lil!" Conan said and slightly shook the girl and slowly she seemed to wake up. She opened her eyes and sat up, seemingly still drowsy she rubbed her eyes and looked at him.

Ran had told Conan Alice had fallen asleep right after she rushed into her room and Ran didn't want to wake up. But after he had waited 2 hours he decided to look after her and even to wake her up. First because he had seen she'd forgotten to open her letter and since it came from the BCH it may was important and second because her sleep seemed to be pretty unpleasant. She shifted and mumbled and on her face he saw the expression of fear.

After a while Alice seemed to have spotted his face properly and suddenly she grabbed his arm like she wanted to prevent herself from loosing balance. The she let go of him and looked away. Conan smiled "sorry for waking you up, but you forgot to read your letter." He saw Alice's eyes widening for some reason and she looked back at him; fear in her eyes. Slowly he held it up and she reached for it.

Conan got up from the bed again and wanted to leave her alone but she grabbed his jacket. "It's from BCH" she said like this was a reason why she wanted him to stay. "What could they want from me?" Conan shrugged; "maybe this is just a formal thing about your accident." Alice shook her head. "Kogoro and Agasa dealt with this formal stuff for me; the letter is addressed to me."

Now Conan felt worried too. "So… you want me to stay?" he asked. Alice twitched her mouth, he knew she was still not ready to say sorry but he wouldn't allow her to get away with this too easy. Finally she nodded and he sat down on the bed while she opened the letter.

"_Dear Bankroft-san,_

_We are contacting you with this letter to request you to visit the Beika City Hospital as soon as possible._

_We beg your pardon for directly requesting you, but we were not able to contact close members of your family and due to current events we do not see a better way. Even though you are still underage we trust in your creditableness and advise you not to involve too many people since our concern could be very private to you._

_On behalf of everyone we are requesting you with this letter to appear in our Hospital within the next days._

_Beika City Hospital."_

Alice gulped after she had read the letter out loud and Conan felt his whole body tensing like someone had tried to knot his stomach. "S… sounds pretty serious, huh?" she mumbled with a facial expression that could once have been a smile. Conan couldn't reply. "_'On behalf of everyone'_… do they think if I wouldn't show up, I could… harm the general good?" she asked and before Conan could force himself to an answer Alice's hands lost grip of the letter and slowly it flew down to the floor where it lay motionlessly. Alice didn't bother to pick it up; with the same silent way the letter fell down before she dropped her head in her hands.

Conan raised his hand, he needed to say or do something… ANYTHING. This must have been a mistake, why did the BCH think Alice to be a cannibal?! Why did they think it was a cannibal at all?! Hadn't Ito-san returned?! Hadn't even this nurse said she saw a druggy hijacking him?! No one died, nothing happened! But slowly Conan recognized Alice had been the prime suspect for the hospital and for herself for days now. Pictures of this news channel appeared in front of his mind; how they broadcasted a new report… this time using Alice as a concrete picture for a monster-child.

Alice must have thought something alike, she mumbled "This would definitely kill our undercover-identity" and Conan looked at her. With her face still hidden behind her hands she continued "this news channel would broadcast my face everywhere… There's no way the organization would miss it and my mother couldn't keep denying we're alive… This would mean our death sentence."

"Lil" he began "we will avoid this to happen! You still have your basics rights. The news aren't allowed to publish your face without your permission and…"

"Basic rights?! Don't make me laugh!" she interrupted him and suddenly raised her face; it showed the worries she'd gone through within the past days. "They will simply do it _'on behalf of everyone'_! To warn them! A cannibal has nothing like basic rights." Conan clenched his teeth while Alice continued to speak, her voice growing more and more shaky "Who knows what they're going to do with me? Will they examine me? Kill me? Hah, may it's for the best if…"

"WOULD YOU PLEASE SHUT UP?!" Conan screamed grabbing Alice's arms with his hands. He had never felt this close to simply beating her; he would never of course but this time she'd really driven him mad. "S…Shinichi" she mumbled with shocked eyes but he didn't listen. "What happened to you?! What happened to the girl that whipped away some tears and stood up against everything? Ever since you were infected you let everything take you down. You lie to your friends about how you feel and what worries you and the only thing you really try is hiding how afraid you are! It's like the shadow of a cannibal is hanging right over you and makes you doubt everything you do or think."

"If I don't doubt myself who else will do it? You all simply trust me but you don't know how naïve this is! You never knew what this disease made me think and how it changed my whole character!" Alice spoke with a scared but solid voice "You want to know if I doubt myself? If I believe I could have hurt someone? No, I would never think so! You want to know if I ever tasted human flesh?! If I would actually LIKE THE IMAGINATION OF KILLING YOU?! No! Never! For nothing in his world! But if you remember what this disease could do to my brain then I'm… not sure anymore."

Conan blinked. All this had waited inside Alice; she seemed to want to say that ever since it happened but she didn't dare. And now she looked up at him with wet eyes, shaking in fear of what he would say… ? He kept quiet, he simply soften his grip on her arms and felt sorry for being ruff.

"I'm sorry" both sighed and gave each other a half amused smile. All this seemed so surreal. "We used to be sane, remember?" he asked exhausted and Alice snickered "barely."

For a moment they both remained silent and leaned back against the wall behind the bed. "You're right. I know that, ok? It's just… I'm scared. I'm scared how all this changes me" Alice said finally and grabbed Conan's hand with hers. "I really admire you for staying this calm in such a situation" she tilted her face to him and smiled; looking as tired as he felt. "And with such a nasty piece of work at your side" she added and he turned his face around to her too. "Hey, I don't want to miss this nasty piece of work" he replied lowly and reached out his hand to stroke away some streaks of her hair away "I just want her to be herself again and not worried or pretending happy." He saw Alice tiredly closing her eyes and nodding while they slid closer together.

For some seconds he closed his eyes and enjoyed the warmth of her body right beside him, her breath on his skin and how she felt why slowly falling asleep. He could barely remember the last time they had been like this together and he really enjoyed it. He felt Alice's head dropping onto his shoulder and some weight on his stomach that may was a result of Alice resting her hand there, but he also felt the presence of a possible cannibal still hanging above their heads.

A sudden slight move of her muscles told him she was about to stand up. "If I don't stand up I'll fall asleep right on your shoulder" she mumbled and he felt her face lay right beyond his; resting on his collarbone. "Fine with me" he growled back without opening his eyes, but it was too late; the weight on his shoulder was slowly lifted up. He waited with closed eyes for some words of farewell. Nothing happened, no weight moved away from the bed but also no one spoke. Unwillingly Conan opened his eyes and saw Alice sitting on the bed in front of him and with rosé cheeks she watched him.

He tilted his head in confusion and she smiled even wider "I'll go to the hospital tomorrow." He sat up; neither the tone of her voice nor her face told him she would continue this unpleasant topic; she looked still happy and slightly drowsy. "I want to get rid of whatever might is inside me and tries to harm anyone" and with this she hopped down from Ran's bed and smoothed her hair like it was about to save face. "If they wanted to lock me away or kill me or something they would simply have come here and got me" she turned a last time around to him and smiled "but they sent me a letter, so maybe they found a better antidote than sugar and all this finds its end tomorrow."

And with these words she turned around and humming she left the room.

* * *

_o.O My god I swear I didn't plan this to be an ecchi part! :D Geez, Conan! Alice! I wanted you to fight and make up ^-^ It's hopeless with them :) Pls forgive me_

* * *

-The Cannibal-

"_Naïve!"_ the little cannibal clenched its teeth while this was the only thing that echoed in its mind again and again. It was far beyond midnight and the cannibal sat in the office of the tantei-agency on the sofa and shivering increased its grip on its mobile phone. Automatically it reached out its hand to the package that lay beneath it on the sofa and again its hand couldn't grab anything. It had emptied the package of raw meat half an hour ago but it hadn't helped it as much as it did the days before; it still felt every fiber of its body longing for blood.

"_Too close"_ another thought reappeared within its mind. _"We came too close again"_ it made a sound like _"tsk"_ while it smiled derisive about itself. It was its own fault; if it only could get a single bite of… No! It was too early; it wouldn't risk destroying everything just because it couldn't wait.

A little more clam it finally ran its eyes again over the text it had typed on its phone. It would soon send this to its supporters; Ito and Sekai.

'_It will begin tomorrow._

_We will come to the BCH._

_Stay ready and LOW-KEY._

_I will contact you, so wait._

_Follow the plan!_

_C.'_

The plan… it nearly got destroyed by this letter…! This goddamn letter that came out of the blue! This was an unscheduled parameter in a perfect plan… at least the cannibal had thought it perfect. But something must have gone wrong… something that told someone out there it was a cannibal who had hijacked Ito and changed Sekai's opinion. And still the cannibal couldn't tell who… This lunatic of a hobo? Tsk, certainly not; but who else?

It sighed; this person would regret its actions soon enough; now there were more important things to be done. It dialed the numbers of the single-use-phones of Ito and Sekai (it didn't risk to save those numbers) and pressed the _'sent'_ button. As soon as this was done it felt at least some weight lifted from its silent heart.

Everything would be ok. Tomorrow everything would start and end, from the BCH a power would spread all over the planet and this thought was enough to make the cannibal within the office smile its evil smile. Thinking about this… it still had a little call to do. Fast it got up, carefully put the bloody packaged of its meal into the kitchen-garbage where the Mori's would think it to be a remnant of other ingredients and left the office. While leaving, it threw a last glance into the bathroom mirror to make sure there were no bloodstains left on its face.

It watched its clean face. It showed no trace of the cannibal hiding within what made the little monster smile again. This time the disease had changed; ever since APTX4869 mutated it, it became better. The disease still made its "victims" stronger and resistant against pain, fatigue and dying at all and it stopped affecting the nerve system. When infected and turned into a cannibal one didn't became a silly carnivore animal, this time one remained intelligent and even the skin barely lost color and the pain while changing had vanished. When the little cannibal changed, it went slow and smooth but its supporters simply blacked out and woke up as cannibals… The only thing the little monster didn't fully understood yet was why the persons it bit behaved this loyal towards the little cannibal; of course it was handy but still slightly annoying.

Finally the cannibal turned away from the mirror and left the bathroom. Now it was time to call its parents. It laughed lowly "my, who thought they could become this useful for me one day."

* * *

-Ai-

The bus drove above a pothole again and banged Ai's head against the windowpane. Annoyed she raised her head away from it; actually she'd enjoyed resting her head on the chilly glass since the July-weather had grown even more unendurably hot, but this had been the third time her head banged against the window and that hurt.

"Minna, you didn't have to accompany me" Alice said and threw a grateful look at her friends who were all suffering beyond the heat in the bus just like Ai. "Sure we must! We are the detective boys and we don't let anyone go to hospital all alone" Ayumi objected and gave herself some cooling with a paper fan. Ai saw Alice beaming and she replied "well then, thanks."

Ai soon let her eyes wander out of the window again. She had avoided it to think about the coming event too much ever since Alice'd told them she'd go to the hospital, but all those thoughts were crowding her mind and she was barely able to overhear them any longer. _"So she is a cannibal again?! Is she aware of this? Is this all a mistake? Did she really hijacked this doctor? Does she want to hurt us? What are they going to do with her?!"_ but Ai knew she wouldn't find a proper answer to all those questions so she just lay her head back onto the cool window and tried to distract herself with looking out of the window.

Sometime later they had finally reached the dirty old hospital and left the bus into the, even hotter, midday air. Ai smoothed the part of her hair that she'd lay against the window and also her friends were trying to adjust their sweaty cloth and afterwards they walked up into the hospital. Shortly before Ai followed the others through the entrance she hesitated and looked back to the bus station; a weird feeling had made her turn around… somehow it felt like forgetting something within the bus… An umbrella maybe, or the purse, or something else… But Ai knew she'd brought nothing more to the hospital then the stuff she still had in her pocket she tried to shake this feeling off. She turned around and entered the white building and while the door slid close behind her and her friends she didn't knew the only thing they all left in the bus was the ability to leave this place again by safe.

* * *

_Please leave a review to help me improve :}_


	8. Supernumerary

**_[Act 8] - ||Supernumerary||_**

_ dedicatus545: Thanks for your review :) I'm glad you shared your opinion this honestly with me and I'll keep trying to avoid further 'Mary-Sue-ness' ;D can't guarantee it though. (But I think compared to Ran, my OC is not too perfect ^.~)_

_And now here we go ^-^ we head for the main part :DD well kinda~ sry that the Introduction turned out to be even longer than in CL1, but I needed to practice Introductions for me being an author ;* Hope you're ok with that._

* * *

-Ayumi-

"How nice of them; they gave me my old room" Alice sighed and dropped on the hospital bed. Ayumi also took place on a chair for visitors; Alice was right this was room 2111; the room they had put her into while she had suffered from her injuries from the fire. Something seemed wrong to Ayumi. Alice had told them she needed to return to hospital for a checkup but why were Conan, Ai and Alice this tensed? A normal checkup was nothing to worry about but as usual her three friends seemed to know something they kept secret from the others. Subtly Ayumi clenched her bag on her lap; a long time ago she understood her three friends were living in a world different from theirs, but was there really nothing she could do about that?

Without lifting her head she looked at Alice; she still lay on her bed. Alice wasn't much of a beauty, she had a light English accent and sometimes said things that were just weird… but why did Ayumi felt the feeling of envy crawling up in her throat that often? The reason came from her right side; in short trousers and a striped green T-shirt Conan walked up to Alice and looked at her from above. He said something nettling to her and she replied with a sarcastic voice… both smiled and he pulled her up from the bed. With a mixture of jealousy about their relationship and the feeling of guilt about envying her friend she increased the grip on her bag.

"Are you ok?" a dry voice came from Ayumi's left side and she winced. Ai had appeared close to her and scanned Ayumi's face with a sober but somehow caring glare. Ayumi fast smiled and nodded "s…sure. I just dislike hospital."

"I see" Ai mumbled and somehow this made Ayumi feel Ai really saw what she felt. "Bankurofutu-san?" a nurse had entered the room with a clipboard and called for Alice; she pronounced her surname typically Japanese. "It's Bankroft" Alice replied and walked up to the woman in the white clothes. "A…ah" the woman said, pretending to see her mistake and peeked at the clipboard again "the doctor wants to see you now" and with these words the nurse opened the door to let Alice walk ahead. With a silent clicking sound the door fell shot behind the both of them and left Ayumi and her friends back.

"And now?" Genta wondered out loud; as Ayumi he didn't seem to have known they would have to wait all alone for Alice… she had been sure they could follow her. "We'll wait" Ai replied and with a look at Conan she asked "don't tell me you thought we could accompany her, too?" Conan simply shook his head. "I just wonder why they gave her a room… shouldn't it be enough to make her and us wait in the waiting room?"

"Not before she didn't get the antidote." A rough voice cut through the air and gave Ayumi a feeling she didn't like at all; something within this voice made her want to run back to her mother and hide behind her back. A man was standing in the door and somehow his appearance just didn't want to fit being in a hospital. He was big, looked strong and wore some battered clothes. The only part of his face Ayumi could properly see was his chin, which was covered with beard stubbles; the rest was hidden behind a hat. A hat! Ayumi had barely ever seen people wearing hats in buildings; except Megure-kebu and well… cowboys.

"No wonder they let her go to the doctor this fast; they couldn't risk her being alone in a room with innocent children for too long" the man said again and now Ayumi knew what she disliked about his voice; it always sounded like it hid an evil smile. "Who are you?!" Conan asked and judging from his look and the tone of his voice Ayumi could tell Conan disliked this man as much as she did.

The man raised his head and grinned. His face just fitted the rest of his appearance; big, strong and rough. "Call me Kato-san; Kato if you want. I never fully got why children should respect adults just because they're older." Ayumi could easily believe this man didn't get really much but she decided not to say a thing. "And what did you mean by that?!" Genta asked angrily and Ayumi looked back at her friends. All were throwing furious looks at Kato who seemed to be pretty amused. "Yeah! Why should Alice be dangerous?!" Mitsuhiko added and Kato snorted jolly "well, I'm not surprised creatures like her keep their true colors hidden" he turned around and added "but don't worry kids; when the doctor is done with her and my antidote works properly there's no further reason to worry for you." And with this he closed the door.

"W…what did he talk about…?" Ayumi asked confused and even a little scared. Why should Alice need an antidote? And why was she dangerous? And why the hell did he call her a 'creature'? Ayumi tilted her head around to her friends and to her very surprise the all avoided each other's looks. But what was the oddest thing was that not only Conan and Ai behaved this way… also Genta and Mitsuhiko appeared to feel uncomfortable.

"W… what's up?" Ayumi mumbled insecure and Mitsuhiko raised his head and said "we thought it were best not to talk about it but… seemingly Alice is a cannibal."

* * *

-Conan-

Conan couldn't tell which situation seemed more surreal to him; either the weird man who only seemed to have appeared to frighten them or the fact that Mitsuhiko and Genta knew about the cannibal-problem. "S…since when do you know…" Conan began and Genta shrugged "Alice seemed to be really worried about this 'monster-child' and usually she had said something about how creepy it is, but she kept quiet and behaved just… worried."

"Yeah, and Genta and me talked about it and came to the conclusion Alice only has to come here to get a new antidote… but we weren't sure so we decided not to say a word" Mitsuhiko added and Conan and Ai glared at the two boys with wide eyes.

"So all of you knew and decided not to tell me a word?!" Ayumi's high voice suddenly interrupted the silence and made her friends feel even more uncomfortable. "We thought it isn't necessary to talk about it… I mean maybe this will all end today anyways" Ai was the first to answer. "Who was this guy by the way?" Conan asked, trying to change the issue. He walked over to the door and peeked outside; somehow he hoped this man was still waiting there. "Right, he sounded like he made the antidote" Ai agreed and walked to the door too, followed by her friends.

After some moments of looking around Conan recognized they were all suddenly standing outside on the corridor. He turned around to the others "what…?"

"We can't simply wait there!" Ayumi explained; she seemed to be really shocked about what she just heard and even though Conan already knew it he understood her urge to walk around just to escape the awkward silence of the room.

"Hey, why don't you give the gift-shop a look?" Conan said after a while of pondering. His friends answered this with a doubtful look "Alice hates doctors, so maybe you find a nice gift that cheers her up."

"And you will… do what?" Genta bended forward to Conan and raised an eyebrow. "I… uhm I'll see if I can find a soda machine or so" he tried to sound serious about this "and organize something to drink for us" and with these words he turned away and rushed down the corridor; he knew at least Ai would know that this was a lie, but he hoped she would get what he was really up to do and would convince the kids to spent some time at the gift shop until he would return.

Still hoping this he ran down the corridor to the treatment rooms, in one of these Alice would wait for a doctor and after he heard this Kato-guy Conan couldn't just sit around in her room and wait, he needed to find her.

* * *

-Alice-

(H)

_^_^ hihi, _serious_ H, finally ;PP So if you dislike LillIchi you should really skip this part *whistles innocently*_

* * *

Alice lay on the pitch in the treating room and looked at the ceiling. What a weird feeling the last minutes had given to her. After the nurse had brought her into the treating room she vanished; right on the spot. She barely seems to be able to tell her she should put on a nightshirts for patients; she really seemed to be afraid of Alice.

Afterwards a man had entered the room, just seconds after Alice had got out of her cloth and put on the nightshirt, and he couldn't have looked less like a doctor. He was big and looked strong and kinda unkempt, maybe like some sort of hunter for wild animals but not like a doctor one could trust.

They had been alone; no nurses were with her, even though Alice thought it was some sort of rule no patient (especially when it was a woman) should be alone with a doctor. The man had smiled while raising his head; a head! In a hospital, Alice couldn't avoid disliking him. "Hey there, good decision to come here" he sounded like he was talking to some enemy he had cornered and that had now given in. Instinctively Alice tensed and straightened up. The man chortled but his eyes were glued to Alice like he was waiting for her to make a sudden move.

"Call me Kato-san; Kato if you want" he added since Alice simply replied with a scanning look. "And I will now need some blood of you, afterwards you get a little injection and we're done." Alice inwardly was surprised. That's it? Two pricks and she would be all right? Outwardly she continued her cold look and nodded "Alright" she replied. She wouldn't allow this guy to see her feelings.

Then he took some blood of hers and vanished and she still lay on the pitch now; some minutes later and thought about everything as suddenly the door slid open again. Instantly Alice sat up again and felt her head spinning; she always felt dizzy after injections but in case Kato would return the last thing she wanted was lying; it would give her the feeling to be his pray and she disliked this feeling no matter how silly it may was. To her surprise not the big, horrible man was standing there; Conan had entered the room. He didn't look very comfortable but Alice smiled, nearly beamed.

"Conan" she mumbled happily; still she didn't risk calling his real name in public even though they were alone. He gave her a short smile but his face told her he was still worried. "What's wrong?" she asked, trying to sound caring; this turned out to be difficult, she was just too happy someone was with her after meeting this horrible Kato.

"N…nothing" he replied; a default answer between them, it didn't mean a thing, not even that there was nothing; it just should calm the other one a little. "I just wanted to look after you" he added and Alice smiled gratefully. "Thanks. They are treating me like a contagious animal in here and you should meet the guy that seems to be my doctor! A horrible guy named Kato." While she said all this Conan had slid the door close behind him and walked up to her pitch; just when he had climbed up onto it she said _'Kato'_ and his moves froze.

"Kato?!" he asked and at once he looked worried again. Alice nodded unsecure "yeah… why? Do you know him?" Slowly Conan started to explain that he had just met him. He must have visited her room right after taking her blood and met Conan and the others there. Alice leaned back after Conan had finished talking, her stomach felt sick and her head dizzy.

"D… don't worry!" Conan fast added when he saw Alice's reaction. "Maybe he just wanted to sound important, antidote doesn't mean you…"

Alice interrupted him with a tired smile. "It's ok. I'm… ok" she spoke slow and tried to feel if _'ok'_ was the right word to describe her feelings while she spoke "I've accepted what I am at the moment and according to this Kato I'm only one injection away from being myself again." Conan knitted his eyebrows "you don't look _'ok'_" he said a little low like he didn't wanted to start a fight but could also not keep it to himself. Alice shook her head; she hadn't lied "I simply hate injections, he just took some blood of me and I feel sick; I'm that scared of injections that I sometimes black out after getting one; so it's just that."

She raised her hand to see how it shivered, also her body felt cold and wet; she was close to a shock and a black out and that made her smile. She had gone through so many scary situations but a simple injection made her faint. Out of blue Conan took her hand, just like he hoped when he could stop the shivering he could keep her from fainting.

While she looked at him she saw a new expression enter it; shiftlessness. "Sh… should I call a doctor?" he asked and sounded like she was about to die; Alice snickered; he was a brilliant detective but could look this helpless when he saw himself confronted with a new situation. "No, one can't do much about it; I just need to try getting my bloodstream back to normal."

"What do I need to do?" Conan asked and Alice blinked; usually she was the partner that asked for instructions and their sudden role reversal made her smile though she felt a deaf feeling on her ears; another symptom of fainting. "Can you fold up the head part of the pitch?" she asked more that she ordered but Conan fast did what she asked him to and looked at her curiously while she laid upside down on the pitch so her legs were now supported by the head part. "Uhm, by doing this the blood flows back into my brain and I won't black out" she explained though she was sure he already knew it; she simply needed to say something to gap the odd feeling of lying upside down in front of Conan in nothing but a white nightshirt.

For a moment both seemed to get used to the weirdness of the situation and finally Conan asked "do you feel better?" Alice nodded, slowly the deaf feeling vanished and the world stopped rotating, only her shivering continued. She looked at Conan again; standing there in the room. There was no chair around and she feared he would maybe go away and she wouldn't know how to make him stay, but she didn't want to be alone with Kato again.

Carefully, in case she would feel dizzy again, she raised her head that lay on the flat part of the pitch and signalized Conan to sit down. "Uhm, where are Ai and the others?" she ask sheepishly to gap the odd silence while Conan slowly climbed onto the pitch again. "Hopefully they're still in the gift shop" he replied; carefully sitting on the very edge of the pitch to keep the distance between them as big as possible. Most girls would have felt offended by a guy not taking a chance to sit close to them… and so did Alice; at least the selfish-part within her.

The logical (pretty annoying) part however told her that there were 2 good reasons for his behavior.

1.) This was simply how he behaved. He didn't want to be rude by avoiding her touch; he tried to take respect on her.

2.) He must be aware of her disease. She couldn't really think he was enjoying her presence; likely he wanted to vanish like the nurse did before… So all in all she could be grateful he had shown up at all.

She peeked at the distance between them; it wasn't much though since she was leaning on her arm on the pitch. Between her shoulder and him were barely some inches. "S…so what did Kato say?" Conan asked; seemingly wanting to kill the silence too. "Nothing much" Alice replied and reluctantly she remembered the short time this man had been with her. "He told me he needs my blood, then he'd give me an injection and _'we're done'_…" Conan nodded to show her he'd hear her answer, but judging from his thoughtful look he didn't felt as eased as Alice did. "Well, if that's it, we should b_ d_e _t."

Alice knitted her eyebrows, she hadn't understood the last part of his sentence and annoyed she recognized the dizziness together with the deafness had returned. "This silly low blood pressure" she grumbled acid about her own weakness and dropped her head again onto the pitch so her feet were high enough again to make the blood flow into her brain.

To her surprise the part of the pitch her head had fallen onto felt pretty warm, her head had barely lain on it, before she raised it for Conan. Also she couldn't tell if it was part of her dizziness, but to her this part of the pitch felt much more comfortable than the rest. "L…Lilly?" Conan's, slightly shaky, voice suddenly asked and Alice, who had closed her eyes until now (since she figured seeing only supports the dizziness), looked up… at him.

While her eyes grew wider, she felt all her blood rushing up into her face, turning it into a highly warm tomato. She would have made a squeaking sound if her whole body, including her throat, hadn't gone all stiff. She looked up at Conan, _straight_ up at him and his face was nearly as red as hers. This comfortable warm part of the pitch… didn't actually belong to the white bed-like thing; she just had managed it to drop her head right on his lap.

"I… gomen!... you…" she suddenly stuttered, highly surprised her voice was working again; though the words didn't make much sense she was still proud of them, since the only thing her mind came up with was _'laplaplaplaplaplap'_ what, how she decided, was not a really good excuse. Conan shook his head, his eyes staring at something in front of him, something faaaar away from this awkward situation, so he could avoid looking at her. Grateful that she didn't had to look into his eyes Alice tried to stop blushing. The question of what she could do now was far beyond her reach at the moment, later while she'd looked back at this situation she would shake her head about why she didn't simply sat up, but at this moment her brain didn't seem to be able to come up with something complicated like that; it simply switch to stand-by-mode and waited for Alice to solve this situation without it.

After some moments in this oddly fluffy world of not thinking Conan spoke again and pulled her back. His face had nearly regained normal color when he said "how does it feel?" And at once he went red again "I… I mean your head! Because of the dizziness!" and his eyes, which had shortly searched hers, looked away again. Now Alice couldn't help herself but snicker; it didn't even sound like her voice snickering but she allowed it to happen since she felt it took some of the embarrassment away from her. "Better" she managed it to replied, still hardly laughing and now she saw an embarrassed grin also entering Conan's face. "Thanks to my pillow" she added shyly after she'd stopped her laugh attack.

"Demoted; from a detective to a pillow, huh?" he asked, pretending to be offended and she felt eased he joked too. "You're doing this pretty well, maybe you should think about a change of career" she teased him and finally he looked at her with a look – ready to tease her back. "To allow more heavy people like you resting their heads on me? No thanks"

"Oh!" she made a sound of anger "like your head is this light! I bet it's twice as heavy as mine" she snapped and pointed at him.

"Sure it is" he agreed and took her hand "so much cleverness needs its space." Dismissively she clicked her tongue "you're pretty impressed by yourself, aren't you?"

"Deeply" he agreed and both had to smile.

Alice recognized that Conan was still holding her hand and felt impeccancy growing within her. She felt impatient for Kato to return, to give her the antidote, impatient for this cannibal to vanish so she could be together with him again. Together. Shinichi and she had spent now 90% of their life together; since some month they were a couple… but she couldn't remember a single time they had actually been together; not all alone at least. There was always someone or something interfering. A case, her family, doubts, cannibals and of course this goddamn APTX4869. Since ages Lilly and Shinichi had been followed every step they were taking; always pacing them: Alice and Conan. Even now, that she looked up at this man who was everything she had wanted and she couldn't allow this feelings; not entirely. Somehow it was wrong; somehow this wasn't Shinichi's face and yet it was and this drove her insane.

She threw another look at Conan and saw an equal state of thoughtfulness in his eyes. "What are you thinking?" she asked, though she only half hoped for an answer; often while thinking he seemed unable to answer; this time he was though. He blinked, like she'd caught him with something forbidden and he replied "the same as you likely… I wonder if this will work out" and even though his look told her more about what he was talking about than his actual words, she got it.

Alice had never known 'breathlessness' could also be used for something bad, but this word exactly described her reaction; she felt choked. She nearly forgot that he simply put in words what she thought herself but she couldn't believe it, and she couldn't understand it. She sat up, like she hoped she'd be able to breathe again when she could sit; all dizziness was gone and some awkward energy replaced it. Similar to anger she felt this energy giving her enough strength to talk but also it took away her ability to keep her voice low. "Don't…" she began and shook her head like it could help her voice calming down "Don't say it like that!"

Her furious glare met his blue eyes that showed her sorrow and confusion. "If you do it then say it, but don't beat about the bush!" No matter how hard she'd tried it she couldn't keep calm. Whenever thoughts about Conan breaking up with her entered her mind she'd decided she'd stay calm; she'd never been a serene person, but she'd promised herself that this horrible situation at least would run smooth; now she just broke this promise.

"_That's not it!"_ she thought head shaking _"If he'd said _'Let's brake up'_ I wouldn't be this angry, he could have told me that he misunderstood his feelings for me; ok. He could have told me there was some other girl; fine. He could have told me I'm just a freaking insane cannibal; good point. But not this half-hearted excuse!"_

"Lil, it's not this easy…" he began with this polite tone and she snapped "it is simple. Very simple! So, why?"

"There's no why!" he snapped back, obviously he wouldn't just stand her screaming like that. "That's crazy!" she barely recognized their conflict turning into a serious fight. "Well, you should know" he replied and hushed her for just enough time to go on "It's a problem and I wanted to discuss it, why do you start a fight?!"

"Do you think me an idiot?" she asked sarcastically and when he opened his mouth to, likely, approve, she went on "I know where such conversations lead and I decided I'd spare you this, so just say it! Three simply words and I'll stop shouting, but for god's sake, use them!"

"You want to hear it?" he asked with a malign tone and both exchanged angry glares. Alice knew she wasn't screaming of anger; not real anger at least. She was hurt and felt scared of what would follow and some part within her hoped Conan felt the same while he brought himself closer to her "I love you."

Alice tilted her head; she hadn't seen this coming "... now you've lost me" she said all confused so Conan explained, still furious "what can one not understand about it?!" angrily he sat back again and left Alice in this bowed position they had used for their death-stare duel, though now she looked more like a dog that's ball had vanished. Slowly, while her mind began to understand these words, she sat back too. While all her anger had left her at the moment she understood him, Conan's grumpy mood remained while he spoke. "I mean what I said; I wonder if this will work out, but that doesn't mean I'd quit it. Geez, normal persons would at least let me finish what I want to say before they start shouting."

"Sounds boring, not like me at all… sorry" she mumbled excusing, she felt sorry for not letting him finish his sentence, but not for screaming; it had felt right to fight for something this important to her. He shrugged and mumbled something about that he's used to her way of reacting, what made her feel even guiltier. She slid closer to him and tried to catch his look while she inwardly promised herself to behave a lot more normal after this cannibal-thing would be over, though she knew this would likely just become another promise she couldn't deliver.

Finally Conan looked at her with eyes that clearly said _'you're pretty stressful'_ and then he raised his hand and touched her cheek. For the second time on this pitch the brown-haired blushed but he grumbled "you don't always have to cry" and he whipped over her wet cheek. Slightly surprised she touched his hand over her cheek to recognize he'd been right; she had started to cry without being aware of it. "This cannibal-thing really seems to be bad for my temper" she mumbled and he made a dismissive sound "baka, don't blame it on the cannibal; this is so typical for you" and finally he stopped his grumpy tone. "Likely it's my fault; I told you I could deal with this way of yours" and maybe just to stop her from crying he pulled her into his arms. Alice sniffed "tsk; and you still call _me_ crazy? There were many people who thought they could handle me, sooner or later I proofed everyone of them wrong; so you are either a nut or very tolerant." In his warm embrace she finally stopped crying and even got her voice calm enough to throw back an answer. She really loved the way teasing and comforting went hand in hand when she was with him; she just wished she could kiss him.

"Nut or tolerant? I'd prefer calling it a brave kind of strength" Alice snickered over his half-pretended self-adulation dropped a kiss on his neck; at least this wouldn't put him at risk to get infected. She felt his body reacting to her kiss; his touch on her back turned into a light grip and he kissed her forehead while he pulled her even closer. While her head slid down to his chest she felt a smile curling her lips; she enjoyed nothing as much as his way of hugging her, she felt like fully vanishing in his embrace. After a while she would need to get out of this warmth again anyways, no matter how she loved it she was barely able to breathe while sitting like this, so she would straighten up and they would sit there and hold each other for some time.

Reluctantly she got her head up onto his shoulder when she felt she could no longer hold her breath and just when she dared to breathe again she felt Shinichi kissing her shoulder. She smiled over this last kiss for the moment; it felt like waving goodbye to this seconds she loved the most which always ended to soon and left some kind of aftertaste of disappointment. He kissed her shoulder again, this time close to her collarbone and she felt a light shiver shaking her body. This unspoken contract to stop after she straightened up gave her security, like some sort of safety rope it prevented them from tripping and falling, but it also held them back; it stopped them from climbing higher and even if one of them recognized it, it seemed too late to cut this rope.

Once again Shinichi seemed to have read her mind and simply decided to proof her wrong; he put another kiss this time on her neck… this time high enough for her to feel it; really feel it on her skin, not dulled by this nightshirt and, somehow to her own confusion, she made a noise of surprise and rapture; a little gasp, still with too much voice within it to deny it. She felt him suddenly hesitating and pushing away from her to look at her; she grabbed his shirt and held him close to her to stop Shinichi from doing so. She knew she couldn't stand his look right now; she felt far too embarrassed so she did the only thing she could think of and breathed "go on, please."

For a short period of time nothing happened, she felt only a little pulsing on her chest, though she couldn't tell if it was Shinichi's or her own heart. Then, finally, he kissed her skin again. This kiss went a lot slower, nearly nervous, like he wanted to test out if she was really ok with it; she was and kept quiet. While he went on, getting faster, she managed it to stay silent though her body was trembling now and she couldn't stop her hand from increasing the grip on his shirt though she tried, but she knew it was hopeless; now that they started climbing without rope she felt the presence of an abyss beyond them so she needed grab hold on something or she would fall, by some means or other.

After some further kisses she couldn't simply keep her mouth shut anymore so she pushed them on his skin for a kiss; now he was the one to wait and keep quiet. A little game started between them, where everyone did his best to raise a noise from the other one and nearly playful they changed the roles after such a noise and Lilly never felt sure which role she liked best. Once while it was his 'turn' she felt his hand suddenly on her waist and simply lost balance; she fell aback and he supported her so she didn't really fell but he still slowly lowered her. For the first time since their fight their eyes met and Alice felt a little chocked while he'd finally let her body down onto the pitch.

'_I can't breathe'_ she thought running her eyes over his body and while she was sure she'd die, he bended over her. She closed her eyes while Shinichi continued their game and Lilly now felt sure that she had figured which role she liked best. And while kissing slowly turned into sucking and his hands were wandering up she decided that breathing was highly overrated.

* * *

_Please leave a review to help me improve :}_


	9. The leading part…?

**_[Act 9] - ||The leading part…?||_**

-Ai-

"Kawaii~" Ayumi beamed and made Ai smile; the girl had just found a plush sheep within the mountain of stuffed animals in the gift shop. Ayumi gave the animal to Ai who watched the fluffy pet carefully before she smiled. "I bet Alice would like this one" she decided and gave it back to Ayumi and the detective boys to scan it.

They'd spent the last twenty minutes with their search for a gift for Alice. Actually Ai wanted to make sure the kids wouldn't run through the hospital but it was Ayumi who pushed the others to search properly. Ai believed Ayumi was still worried about what she'd just heard and maybe wanted to be nice to Alice now.

"Why do you think so?" Mitsuhiko asked Ai while scanning the toy "I never knew she likes sheep that much." Ai walked over to the kids and reached for the stuff animal. "I didn't say that because it's a sheep" she began and pulled open the little zipper on the left side of the animal "but because of that" and she upended the sheep and showed the kids that the other side of the animal was a wolf.

The detective boys beamed "sugoi!" they cheered and Ai curled her lips. _"For you it's a nice little magic trick, isn't it?"_ she thought, watching the kids repeating her feat _"for us however, it's much more than this. Turning over and showing the whole world your true self, though it may is the face of something dangerous is what we would love to do… The three of us can't do that of course; we have to keep quiet and hope none of you will discover the wolf beyond our fluffy white fur."_

A sudden silence fell over them while the light all around faded, followed by the scared mumbling voiced of the people around. "A…Ai-chan, what happened" the worried voice of Ayumi appeared near Ai while the girl snuggled herself closer to Ai and also Mitsuhiko and Genta had slid some closer to them. "A blackout" Ai replied alarmed and Genta added "nothing to worry about Ayumi, the light just went off."

"You're wrong" Ai said sharply and looked around to see the entrance of the little shop "don't forget we're in a hospital. Hospitals are one type of buildings that have a special standby-set. In case of an accident or thunderstorm or anything like that they can still power their important gadgets." Finally her eyes had spotted the entrance and through the glass window she could peek into the lobby of the hospital; it had also fallen dark.

"So you want to say…" Mitsuhiko began and Ai nodded, though she wasn't sure he saw it "yeah, a blackout in a hospital is a special case and a serious one, too" she completed the sentence.

A sudden technical noise followed by an echoing voice told Ai the speaker system still worked. "Visitors and patients of the Beika City Hospital, please leave the building on the shortest way, we have to deal with current problems. Please stay calm; our apologies for troubling you." The announcement was repeated and with a last technical noise the voice died away. Ai didn't believe her ears; how could they simply ask the patients to leave? Wasn't this a hospital? What would they do with patients who weren't able to walk themselves?

"What about Conan and Alice?" Ai heard Ayumi ask and even through the darkness she could see the fear on the face of the girl. "Right! We can't leave without them!" Genta agreed and Ai saw Mitsuhiko nodding. Slowly the kids walked out of the shop and into the lobby, pulling Ai with them.

"_Why do I hesitate?"_ Ai secretly wondered _"they are right, we need to find Lilly and Shinichi so we can leave together"_ and even though Ai couldn't tell why she felt she'd prefer simply to leave and wait for her friends outside.

* * *

-Conan-

"This way" Conan said and they nearly ran around a corner to their left. He walked ahead and illuminated the way with his flash light watch, Alice walked right behind him and behind her about 5 other people followed them. As soon as the light faded Alice and he knew something was wrong, they walked out of the treating room and saw the light had faded within the whole hospital. After the announcement they walked downstairs and on their way they met some people who couldn't find a way out without a light so now they lead them.

Conan threw a glance back at Alice, she didn't look very well. Her face was all pale and fear twisted her mouth, he was sure this all reminded her a lot of the last time they walked though a dark building to find an exit. He gulped; hopefully this wouldn't turn into such a bloodbath.

"Why are all windows barred?!" he heard Alice mumble who must have recognized his looks. She was right; every single window was barred with thick iron bars which nearly excluded the whole sunlight. All in all the hospital felt like a huge pot; hot, poky and dark.

"Because it once has been an asylum; those bars were the easiest way to protect the society from what was kept inside here." A rough voice appeared in front of them within the darkness. Some of the people that followed Conan gasped and fast he illuminated the corner he guessed the speaker to be at, though he was sure he knew who they'd see.

The light told him he'd been right; Kato stood there with his hat and his smirk and looked at them. _"Had he waited there in the darkness for someone to come along and ask a question?!"_ Conan pondered but before he could say something he heard Alice say from behind him "what are you doing here?! Shouldn't every doctor help the patients to escape from here?"

Kato walked into the middle of the corridor and looked at them "help the patients? Do you know where you are? The BCH is that rundown that it only has about 10 patients that have rooms here. The nurses lead most of them and the ambulant patients out already; I came here for him" he pointed at the old man that followed Conan and Alice.

Conan turned around and saw that the man wore a patient's nightshirt like Alice, the other 4 (a man, a woman and two kids) wore every day clothes and must have visited him. Kato waved them over and slowly they walked up to him. He gave the younger man a flash light and a short direction where the exit would be and with this the little family vanished inside of the darkness and left Conan, Alice and Kato alone.

Kato made some steps up to Conan and Alice and instinctively Conan reached out his arm and slightly pushed Alice behind his back to protect her. Kato chortled, while he walked in the middle of the corridor his body nearly blocked the whole way; still he was approaching. "We'll find the way on our own, thanks" Conan said to signalize Kato this wasn't fun anymore, Conan offered him the chance to let them go or they would make him… Conan couldn't tell why, but this Kato looked like he was about to attack.

"Hmm, nah I think I can't allow that" Kato said like he came to this conclusion after thinking it through carefully, but Conan knew this was the reason he had waited there; he wanted to watch for them to come around. "Don't get me wrong" he added suddenly "you are free to leave boy, I just want to have a little chat with that cute girl behind you." And nearly casually Kato reached inside his pocket and got out an injection that seemed to be filled with a dark liquid. "We got interrupted, you see? So be a good boy and go ahead."

Conan smiled acid "you wish!" For the first time this day Kato's smirk vanished and Conan added "you think I let you administer her some mysterious medicine in a hospital while a black out?! If you really want to cure her do that like a normal doctor and not like an assassin in the darkness."

After a moment of confusion Kato seemed to have regained his smudgy happiness "you don't know what you are talking boy, but I'm not the one to explain it to you." Kato approach now faster and Conan looked back over Alice's shoulder; behind them lay nothing but more patients rooms and a corner, but Kato was already too close; he would have reached them before they'd even turned around.

"During my research I talked to too many family members and friends" Kato continued while he stepped now right in front of Conan and Alice "_'My mum would never kill someone!' 'I know him since years; he would never EAT a person!_' Blah blah blah" Kato's voice had grown angry but his smirk grew even wider "all of them were sure they knew them, but I knew their illness! I will not make the mistake to listen to friends of cannibals again!"

Kato nearly shouted and with his last word he simply grabbed Conan and threw him over his shoulder into the corridor.

* * *

-Alice-

"Conan!" Alice shouted; Kato had really _thrown_ him! And now he was approaching her with this horrible smirk. "Oh, your voice sound that much like a little girl I nearly understand why nobody suspected you. When I told them you were a cannibal again no one believed me!" Alice backed off with an angry and scared look "I'm not…" she began and secretly wondered about her words… hadn't she already accepted she actually _was_ a cannibal?

"You think you could trick me too, right?" Kato asked and with a strong hand he grabbed Alice's hair and pulled her up. She screamed in pain but Kato continued "stop this game already, the disease may have changed but you still can't feel pain, can you? I know you're the girl from back then who was infected; the girl who changed the disease I studies since ages; the girl that can _remember_ being a cannibal. You are something special. You see, I suspected you ever since some of the powder vanished from my lab within this hospital. Sure, it vanished the days you were here because of your injuries because of the fire."

Alice heard Kato speak but his words barely made sense, the pain he cause her just took all of her attention. Finally she felt this pain ebb away, Kato had now grabbed her face and held her up what was still painful, but nothing compared to the pain she had while he'd puller her hair. Slowly he brought his unkempt face very close to Alice's; "every time I'm surprise one can barely see the monster that hides within a body, but in your case the doge is nearly perfect, you still look cute and innocent like a little girl" Kato shrugged and pulled the cover of the injection off with his teeth and mumbled with the plastic in his mouth "no wonder this boy fought that hard for you, cannibals are masters of lying and tempting."

A heat shot through Alice body that had nothing to do with the pain Kato cause her; she felt the anger choke her and with all her power she tried to kick her feet into Kato's stomach but he simply stretched out the arm he held her with and chortled. "Next time, try to infect someone with longer legs" he said and raised the injection while Alice closed her eyes.

"Get your hands off of her!" Alice heard a furious scream followed by footsteps; then Kato suddenly seemed to lose balance and both hit the floor hard.

* * *

-Ai-

Ai couldn't believe what she saw while she and the kids ran around a corner to the treating rooms. The first thing her light cone showed to her was Conan who lay on the floor and slowly tried to stand up, some inches ahead a huge man held up Alice and the few sunbeams from the outside illuminated his evil smirk. Before she could react she heard Ayumi shout something with a furious voice and Genta and Mitsuhiko rushed past them to jump at the man to free Alice.

Within seconds the two boys had brought the man to the ground where he and Alice collapsed. Ai and Ayumi helped Conan to get up and together they walked down the corridor to see what happened, while Conan explained the whole situation to them.

"Are you ok?" Ai heard Alice ask when they had reached them. She sat on the floor and stroked her messy hair out of her face. Genta and Mitsuhiko nodded while they were still sitting on the huge man; Ai knew him, it was this Kato. Alice spotted Conan, Ayumi and Ai and widened her eyes. She got up and rushed over to them. "You're ok?" she asked and scanned Conan with her eyes, searching for an injury.

"Yeah, I'm ok" he said and let go of Ai and Ayumi and tried to stand on his own; it worked more or less and now Ai saw Alice look changing. Abruptly she turned around to Kato with clenched fists, her messy hair, the white nightshirt and the angry glare she looked really creepy.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" she shouted "you can't simply attack people in the darkness! I told you I'd take your silly antidote so you didn't have to attack Conan! You god damn…." She went on shouting at Kato who lay under Mitsuhiko and Genta on the floor and watched her confused. Then he seemed to have recognized them, cursed and sat up what made the two boys fall to the floor.

The man straightened up with the most horrible smirk Ai had ever seen and stepped closer to Alice; she didn't move. She glared up to the huge man with her angry look and her hands clenched to fists. Just when Ai feared Kato would simply kick Alice out of the way she felt an air draft and within a second Ayumi rushed past her and stood in front of Alice.

The six other people in the corridor looked at her in surprise "A…Ayumi?" Alice wondered but Ayumi ignored her and said to Kato "don't touch her! I don't believe she is a cannibal, no matter what you say!" Her words echoed in the corridor and seemed to cut through the stuffy air. "Ayumi" Alice repeated and Ai could tell she was about to cry but Ayumi tilted her head around and looked at her with a serious look. "I saw you. I saw how you were while you were… infected. But you are different now. I trust you, ok? So you should trust yourself, too."

Ai felt a silence fall over their group while everyone felt touched by the little girl. Hadn't they all searched for words to say exactly this during the past week? This feeling was interrupted by a chortling that twisted Ai's stomach. Kato looked at them from above and said to Ayumi "well, we'll see. Either she won't recognize a thing, or…" he peeked on his wrist watch "she should black out within the next hour."

And since neither Ai nor anyone else understood what he talked about he added "I succeeded. I administered her the antidote, now we just have to wait." Now Ai and Conan rushed over to Alice and the kids and looked at her. The brown-haired just seemed to have recognized something on her arm. A little silver needle stuck in her arm and from the broken edge a dark red liquid dripped to the floor.

Ai starred at the needle. Obviously Kato had pressed the injection into Alice's arm while Genta and Mitsuhiko attacked him and while they hit the floor the injection broke away from its needle that still stuck in her arm. Alice gulped and Ai saw her twisting her mouth in disgust and agony while she pulled out the silver needle and threw it away. Ai felt uneasy, she tried to tell herself Alice had just been injected some medicine that would help her on a unorthodox way, but she still didn't like the thought.

Not sure what they should do now she looked at Conan who glared at Alice's arm aghast when suddenly Kato spoke again. "Ok, so let's search for a nice place to spend this hour." Ai and all the other tilted their head around to the man who seemed to search for something within his pocket. "What?! But the speaker said… we have to leave the hospital now!" Mitsuhiko tried to tell the man while Ai saw that he was obviously scared of him. Kato made a tsk-sound while he still examined his pocket. "Until this hour isn't over I can't guarantee she's cured. She could still infect people so I'm sorry. Of course you can leave the hospital, but she has to stay here with me.

With these words Kato seemed to have found what he searched for and pulled out a gun. Ayumi gasped and Kato replied "don't worry, I just need to make sure won't attack me" and with a look at Alice he said "I know cannibals can't die but don't forget I gave you the antidote, by now it should affect you enough so you're mortal again." And Kato pointed the gun at Alice's head, waiting for her to follow him deeper into the hospital.

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_Please leave a review to help me improve :}_


	10. Getting changed

**_[Act 10] - ||Getting changed||_**

-Ai-

They kept walking. Everywhere around Ai, pictures continued to pop up; shadows of memories. She remembered the night half a year ago and she hated it. Barely ever before she had seen so much blood and fear, but the most horrible thing she remembered was the place all this had happened. An elementary; a place for children where they could prepare for a life out in a cold world, but nevertheless it ever had been a place of safety; until this day.

And this place; their tour through the dark corridors of the hospital, started to brush all those hidden memories up. Ai peeked over her shoulder; she walked behind the Detective Boys, next to Conan and in front of Alice who got followed by Kato and his weapon.

'_I won't allow you to accompany me'_ Alice had decided after Kato had pulled out his weapon but Ai's answer had just been a shrug _'I don't think anyone of us needs your permission to risk our own life'_ and after she had ignored Alice reproachful look they had started to walk down the corridor Kato had chosen. Ai hadn't wanted the kids to get dragged into this but even less she wanted to leave Alice alone with this guy; who could tell what he would do to her?

It was obvious to Ai that Kato was one of the people who had done researches on the cannibal-disease. After they had survived the night in the elementary Ai had read up on what happened to the researches of the disease after the organization had dropped them and she had found out a little team had started to collect all kinds of information about it; she hadn't found any names of this ominous team, but Kato must have been one of them. Seemingly he had recognized APTX4869 (though he didn't seem to know more about APTX than the fact that it was a drug) had caused the disease to change within Alice's body and now he made up a new antidote.

Ai lowered her head lost in thoughts. Was APTX4869 the reason why the remedy hadn't fully worked on Lilly… She hesitated with this thought; Ayumi's words kept echoing in her mind. _'I saw you. I saw how you were while you were… infected. But you are different now. I trust you, ok?'_ Ai simply had to agree on this. In the past week Alice had never, not even once, behaved like the cannibal she had met this night half a year ago… Also she just didn't want to believe all her fears had just been pretending. So was it more like a split personality? Something that took over control of her friend and afterwards she couldn't remember it anymore?

Ai sighed lowly; this didn't make sense either. The alter ego of people with split personalities usually 'wakes up' within a stressful situation their host has to bear, or when some sort of trigger gets pulled but wouldn't this mean this cannibal-personality had 'woken up' at latest when Kato attacked Lilly? But as far as Ai could tell it had not; Lilly hadn't been able to get rid of Kato what the cannibal-her surely would have been.

Annoyed Ai twisted her mouth like usual when she became stuck with her thoughts, also this horrible heat made everything in her mind run a lot slower than usual so she finally decided to drop this; maybe it was needless anyways, maybe this Kato (how less she liked him) had managed it to heal Lilly so she hadn't to understand it fully.

For a moment Ai wondered whether she could risk it to talk to Conan, who had grown oddly quiet, or if this would get Kato angry but she didn't even had the chance to try it; Kato suddenly made a gasping sound and Conan, the Detective Boys and Ai turned around to him and Alice.

Seemingly Alice had stopped walking and Kato had run into her now he looked at her with a mixture of confusion and approved suspect and raised his weapon. "What's it carnivore? Wanna give your friends the long awaited confession before you finally vanish?" Alice turned around to Kato and away from her friends and cause a wide and in Ai's eyes disgusting smirk on Kato's face "or wanna try an attack on me? Take one of them hostage? Please do so, I'd love to have a reason to shoot your…"

"I'm warm" Alice sober voice was everything that told Ai her friend had spoken; her whole body still stood there; motionlessly. Kato blinked; he hadn't expected this "u…uhm" he began and Alice continued "you see, it's summer and it's hot" finally she moved and Ai saw her pale hand slightly pulling up some of the curt of her white nightshirt. Just by now Ai recognized that the shirt was made out of thick white curt and compared to usual patient's shirts this one had long sleeves; it seemed to be too big for Alice anyways. "I need to get changed; my clothes should still be within the treating room."

Kato made this tsk-sound again and shook his head; the weapon slightly shook too. "I may don't get your cannibal-plan but I won't follow it. The treating rooms are on the 4th floor; we're on floor 2; forget it." Ai looked from the back of Alice head up to Kato and back to Alice again; what was going on here? She couldn't believe Alice would actually complain about her shirt in such a situation, but she also couldn't think of a possible 'cannibal-plan' how Kato called it. Ai looked over to Conan, who still hadn't talked much, but he seemed as confused as Ai, he looked skeptical at Alice and waited for this situation to go on.

Alice finally sighed "well, I won't walked any further within this" she pointed at the shirt again "I'm a child so I think it's normal for me to bitch around if I don't get what I want" Ai saw Alice crossing her arms and anger entering Kato's face. As much as she tried she couldn't sort Alice's tone, the only thing she knew was that Alice was angering a man who didn't have a problem with hurting children and who had a weapon.

"Alice" suddenly Conan's voice appeared and in his voice Ai could hear how worried he was, but also something different. She looked at the small tantei and saw a slightly annoyed smile on his face; it was a hobby of Alice's to anger people who think they were stronger than her and Conan tried to tell her that this was the wrong place for her games; somehow this was their kind of humor and it made Ai want to clout both of them for not getting how dangerous this situation was.

To her surprise Alice turned around to her and smiled her usual friendly smile. "Don't worry, he won't shoot me if I won't attack him, otherwise it would be murder; even he gets this." Alice tilted her head around to Kato again, whose face was now red of anger and she continued "furthermore he needs me for his research, right?"

Ai didn't feel as sure as Alice seemingly did; actually she felt pretty worried since the weapon in Kato's hand was still pointed right on Alice's head. "Can't she get your clothes Conan?" Ayumi's thoughtful voice appeared behind Ai and made Conan's and Alice's face grow highly red. _'I'm really in an asylum'_ Ai decided _'and I'm the only sane person. A guy points a weapon at the head of my friend and she's joking about this with her boyfriend and now a little girls suggested them to changed their cloth; lunatics all around.'_

"What?!" Conan and Alice gasped and Ayumi, who didn't seemed to get what was wrong with this idea explained, "when we visited you Alice, Conan had carried a bag of old cloth along, but when we entered the bus to drive home he didn't had it anymore; I think he forgot them within your room, it's on floor 2, isn't it?" Somehow Ai couldn't avoid believing Ayumi had thought about this for some days now, since she knew all this out of the sudden, but maybe didn't knew how to talk to Conan about this.

Conan nodded, still highly red but Alice wildly gestured with her hands "no, no I can't… I don't think I should wear…" she laughed embarrassed "I was just kidding, ok? I actually enjoy this night shirt very much" she threw a pretended smile around and pushed Ai and Conan to walk on.

"Fine!" Kato spit out this word and Ai saw Kato trying to regain some of his evil-happiness. He ran his hand over his face and Ai knew he would use Alice embarrassment to get revenge on her. "We'll get you those to get changed; I mean, I can't allow my precious cannibal to wear a stinky patients dress all night, so this clothes will do" and with these words he pushed Alice more or less to her old room; 2111.

Some minutes later their group stood in front of this room. Kato opened the door and pushed Alice inside, "you wait here" Kato said and stepped insecurely into the room. "You can't watch her changing her cloth!" once again Ayumi proved her skill to say exactly what everyone thought "she's right, are you pervert?" Genta agreed and Mitsuhiko added with a thoughtful voice "I think people who enjoy this are called pedo…"

"Ok ok!" Kato shouted and Ai clearly saw how he regretted it to have let them accompany Alice. "This was your plan, right?! You evil, dirty, little…" Kato growled while he kneeled down to Alice and suddenly Ai decided that this could be her chance to have a talk to Alice.

"I'll have an eye on her" she said and walked over to Kato and Alice, while everyone watched her surprised. "You…?" Kato wondered and Ai simply grabbed his weapon while she vanished within the room with Alice and replied "don't worry, if she tries to kill me I will simply shoot her head, it's not this complicated."

Before Kato could say something she pushed the door close and switched on the light; now she and Alice were alone.

* * *

-Alice-

Alice uncomfortably looked around within the room; she hadn't thought about how it would feel. Actually she had planned Kato to bring her up to get her own clothes and she had also planned him to let her get changed with either Ai or Ayumi, but she hadn't thought this would happen. Now she stood in a dirty room to put on Shinichi's old clothes with Ai watching her; a weapon to protect herself from Alice.

"I'm sorry" Alice looked up and saw Ai uncomfortably fiddles around on the weapon she blinked "huh?" A nervous laughter ran up her throat; she couldn't help it, but when she felt really tensed she sometimes simply laughed "about what?"

"I don't believe you" Ai said and looked up from the weapon; Alice blinked. "I mean, Ayumi obviously does; she thinks you're no cannibal and I feel sorry because we are friends… but I can't really believe you, even though I tried." Alice shook her head; she didn't mind though she felt it hurt her "I don't… I don't know what to believe too" she looked up and their eyes met. "I feel I am me, as usual, but everything tells me I am a cannibal… So let's just hope this antidote works."

Ai nodded and suddenly her normal sober, annoyed look returned and she asked "now you really need to tell me what your plan is. I mean, why did you want this desperately to get changed? You don't really want to escape, right?" Alice felt embarrassed and poked her fingertips against each other while she mumbled "I'm scared of this nightshirt."

Alice saw her friend blink in confusion "you… are… what?" Alice felt her face glowing red and some louder she replied "I'm scared, ok?! Kato said this once has been an asylum, who knows what kind of people wore those shirts then! I mean, I couldn't stop thinking about it! I needed to get rid of it" she hugged herself and slightly shivered in fear and Ai sighed "no matter what kind of asylum this was, you still must be the craziest person who ever wore this."

The two girls laughed what got interrupted by a heavy knocking on the door "hurry up!" Kato's voice shouted and both rolled their eyes. "Ok, get changed so we can finally leave" Ai said and again Alice blushed "u…uhm, I can't" she mumbled and Ai raised an eyebrow. Alice reached for the bag of Conan's old clothes and pulled out a copy of his blue suit, trousers, white shirt, shoes and bow-tie. "What's wrong with them?" Ai asked and walked over to Alice to have a look on the cloth. "Sure, he wore them while he was younger but I'm sure they should fit you anyways; you're pretty small."

Alice shook her head "it's not that… I don't wear trousers."

"What?" Ai asked and tilted her head "I wear skirts! Dresses and skirts, but no trousers." Alice explained. This just was a matter of fact. She was taught that boys wear trousers and girls wear skirts, everything else was weird. "Ok, now listen to me" Ai begun with a voice of an annoyed teacher who tried to teach a really dumb kid "we are in an evacuated hospital with a lunatic old doctor and his weapon. I know it's not your strength to understand when a situation is dangerous, but THIS IS so just put them on."

"But…" Alice tried.

"PUT-THEM-ON."

"Ai-neechan… you're creepy with this weapon."

"I'll count to three."

"I'm no child, I don't fall for this."

"One."

"This is silly."

"Two."

"I mean, what should happen when you reach three?"

"Thr…"

"Ok, ok!"

Alice quickly got out of the scary night shirt and under the satisfied look of Ai she started to put the cloth on. "My, Edogawa-kun is really lucky, you're just 7 and already you have got some nice amenities" she sat plainly and Alice covered her chest with her hand "geez, I never knew you can be this pervert" she replied jokey and turned her back at Ai "it's not like he'd think this way about me" and though they were joking she felt true frustration while talking. "Huh?" Ai wondered and Alice growled "I mean, I know he can be cold… but this." She turned around to Ai and to her surprise the girl had already walked very close to her, with a pretending wise she said "what happened?"

Alice shook her head "nah, it's nothing. I can't talk to you about it; I wouldn't want Conan to talk about it either."

"About you fooling around?" Ai asked sober and highly red Alice widened her eyes "w…what?!"

"He told me back then in my laboratory, though he used the word _'coming close'_" Alice twitched her moth in anger "so… he told you?" she mumbled acid and while she put on his white shirt she started "fine, if he can talk about it, I can too."

And while dressing up she explained Ai shortly what happened in the treating room. Ai nodded thoughtfully "so the blackout interrupted you, before it grew serious? But this is interesting. I never was sure if APTX4869 affects the hormone, would you mind repeating your little doctor games and let me take some blood of you afterwards?"

"Well I would mind you taking our blood" she said and poked out her tongue and the two girls laughed. "My what a pity, looks like I can't stop you from wasting yourself on such a cold-hearted tantei" Ai said after they had calmed down a little and though Alice knew it was a joke it brought up doubts in her again… doubts she actually wanted to discuss with Conan, but how could she while she was still suspected to be a cannibal?

"Is something wrong?" Ai asked, she must have recognized her change of mood but Alice just shook her head while she adjusted the bow-tie "uhuh, it's nothing… I mean I knew I'd be nervous when we do such stuff, but…"

"But…?" Ai dug deeper and Alice chewed her lower lip while thinking how to explain it "I actually felt pretty scared… I know Shinichi since forever, but this situation was foreign… he looked at me in a way I've never seen him look before and I'm not sure if I liked it; it simply felt like I'd lose my best friend and swap him with some stranger… and I don't trust strangers this easy" she said thoughtfully and finished the outfit with putting on the suit jacket.

Alice felt Ai glancing at her with a worried look and so she raised her head and smiled "no need to worry. You are right, this situation is dangerous; other stuff can wait 'till we can leave this horrible hospital." And with these words she took Ai's hand and both left the room.

* * *

_xD what a weird chapter this was! But I needed it and actually I wanted to include another passage that actually supports the plot a little more, but the this chapter would have turned out to be much too long ;P so gomen, this time you have to trust me that this was important and be satisfied with this weirdo-chapter :*_

* * *

_Please leave a review to help me improve :}_


	11. Foreshadowing

**_[Act 11] - ||Foreshadowing||_**

_Random AN: Cannibal-me is suddenly all addicted to Lemon FFs o.O D Dunno why I came to them, but I enjoy 'em a lot… would my precious readers mind me writing one myself? Maybe with LillIchi, or would that be too awkward?! xD Ah well, forget that~ but if you wanna help me you could take part in the poll at my profile :} pleaseee~_

* * *

-Conan-

Kato leaned himself against the door to room 2111 and peeked through the milk glass window ever and anon what brought him dispraising glares from Genta and Mitsuhiko which he answered with his tsk-sound. Conan had adopted his thinking attitude and pondered. _'Would Kato's antidote work?'_ was the main question that kept him busy, but he saw no way to get it answered at the moment; at least he couldn't simply ask Kato. Another question kept rushing through his mind…

"You didn't had any hints it's Alice who is the cannibal right?" Kato, Mitsuhiko and Genta tilted their heads around to Conan and he saw Kato raising an eyebrow. Conan hadn't made his question sound like an accusation, he just needed to get some more information and finally Kato smirked admitting.

"You're right. We came to the conclusion a cannibal is on the loose. At least some of the powder we did experiments with vanished and then Ito-sensei got hijacked and when he returned he and this nurse, Sekai, behaved weird, but… we couldn't be sure who this cannibal was."

Conan nodded, he saved and sorted this information; he had expected it. "So why do you think it's Alice?!" Genta asked and in contrast to Conan's question he sounded a lot like accusing Kato. "They already injected the antidote to everyone else" Conan answered before Kato could and because of his confused look Conan explained "you couldn't know Alice was here while the powder got stolen, since you don't exactly know when it got stolen, right? If you really did experiments on it you must have a lot of this powder, you would only have recognized something of it missing if you had really looked for it and you don't seem to be the type of man who checks his inventory every night before going home. So when this story of the 'monster-child' appeared you started to wonder and checked your inventory; some of the powder was missing and you put two and two together and understood it was a cannibal, then you cured everybody who had once been infected to be on the safe side; Alice simply is the last one on your list, what makes you this sure that it has to be her."

Kato looked at him for a moment with a surprised look "w…who are you boy?! How do you know all this?"

Conan smiled up at Kato "Edogawa Conan; tantei-san." Kato shook his head seemingly amused "wow, well you're right tantei-san, but if you're this smart you should be able to see only your little bow-girl is left; we made sure all the others are cured, so why did you fought this hard for her, huh?"

Conan ignored Kato's question, he didn't know when he would be able to question this man again and so he wouldn't waste time with explaining this idiot any of his feelings. "With these experiments you did… did your team found out anything interesting?"

Kato's smile vanished and he returned to looking seriously at Conan; Conan answered his look and after a while Kato said "I study this disease since 20 years and most of the stuff I had to learn in hard legwork you learned within a single night."

"Lucky us" Conan replied sarcastically and Kato continued "You know cannibals are dangerous. They are pale, strong, don't feel pain and they simply can't die. Also all cannibals I ever met stopped being really human. They were dumb carnivores with nothing more on their minds than their next meal, which always has to be fresh human flesh. Also they hunt for humans since this raises the adrenaline of their prey which leads to less sugar within their blood because they can't stand sugar; it also works as an antidote how you know yourself. If they don't get any flesh they, as I said before, can't starve though."

Conan inwardly sighed; he knew all this, but suddenly Kato added "but now… thanks to the bow-girl… all this changed; 20 years of studying for the birds."

"How did she change it?" Conan asked, he remembered Ai saying the APTX4869 within Alice's body mutated the disease but he still needed more details.

"We don't know how… we only know the girl has some weird chemical in her body that changed the disease. For some reason it leads the cannibal-disease to spare a huge part of the nerve-system. We did our experiments on animals and all who got infected with the disease we mutated with the blood of the girl didn't seem to lose their intelligence, they simply grew stronger and longed for flesh of their conspecifics while they weren't willing to eat usual food anymore… also their curt and skin didn't lost any color anymore and the antidote… the sugar… simply didn't work so we had to invite this new antidote; plainly we can say the girl created some sort of cannibals 2.0."

"What did you change about the antidote?" Conan asked and Kato threw a long peek through the milk glass window before he turned around to Conan again and smirked "I can't tell you, it is my secret and it's pretty complicated anyways; sugar is just the basis of it, I added a lot chemicals; it works 100% but badly one can't get it as simply as sugar; it takes days to produce it."

"And I bet it taste not half as good as sugar" a female voice appeared and Conan saw the door Kato leaned against was pushed open by Ai. Kato stepped aside and let Ai leave the patients room; behind her a brown-haired girl left the room who made Conan, Genta and Mitsuhiko's jaws drop. She wore grey sorties, a white shirt and a blue suit jacket; from her usual outfit only the bow within her hair was left; Conan saw she had used the red bow-tie to tie the strokes of her hair together behind her head.

Shyly she looked at the faces of the men and uncomfortably she smoothes the trousers; it was obvious she disliked wearing trousers but Conan's eyes were glued to her anyways. "Stop drooling" Ai's sober voice pulled his mind back and embarrassed he averted his gaze. "Let's go" Kato ordered and the group started to walk down the corridor. "So uncomfortable!" he heard Alice hissing to Ai who annoyed pushed her to walk on.

* * *

-Alice-

"In here" Kato's rough voice ordered them while he unlocked a huge wooden door. A brazen name plate on this door showed everybody that the room behind the door must be Kato's office, though Alice recognized that also this plate told them his first name; his second name remained secret. With a clear clicking sound the door's locked snapped open and their group went inside just to see Kato locking the door behind himself, who entered the office last; they were caught in the tiny room.

Alice looked around; all in all the room looked more like a laboratory than an actual office. The white walls and laminate gave it the same sober atmosphere like all other rooms in the hospital. Its walls were covered with odd tools which Alice had never seen before and the whole room was fulfilled with the smell of chemicals. The only hint that this room was used as an office was a huge wooden desk in the middle, even though it was piled with even more tools and small glass dishes. Alice saw the kids nearly forgetting their situation about all this curious tools and they spread in the room to examine everything very carefully what made Kato run after them to prevent his, obviously expensive, tools from getting destroyed. Also she recognized Conan and Ai standing in front of a shelf with ominous test-tubes where they held a whispered conversation she decided not to interrupt.

Instead she walked over to the wooden desk where she found a glassy cage with some mice in it, running around and doing mice-things. When she reached the desk she recognized she was much too small to see a lot more of the cage than the lowest level where one could see the nests of the mice which were abandoned. She sighed, but before she could turn away she recognized something else; on the clean glass she could see the reflection of some dark brown eyes glaring at her. Out of a pale face they blinked and then she even saw the mouth of this face twisting. She glanced at her own reflection and recognized how the lack of sleep had left marks on her face.

"You look tired… you should take a nap." Only the silence around her kept her from screaming out loud; the lips of the refection doubtlessly just spoke to her and now they smirked malignly back at her. She backed off away from the glassy cage still staring at it, but of course she wasn't able to see the reflection from this point anymore. _"I'm really tired"_ she tried to calm herself _"I'm even hallucinating!"_

"Maybe you should say we are hallucinating" her own voice appeared again, this time from her left and she tilted her head around. The voice doubtlessly came from a dark cupboard with glassy doors, but this was ridicules. She could only see her own body in its windows looking straight at her. _"But I don't stand all straight"_. Shot through her head while the facial expression of the reflected Alice changed to an evil smile. While Alice felt her body freezing the reflection slowly walked closer to the glass that separated them from each other and then reached out her hand "You can't avoid me forever" she said and Alice back off once again. "Impossible!" she mumbled still walking backwards "you can't…!"

"Alice?" a low voice ask and suddenly Alice felt a warm touch on her arm, she turned around and saw Ayumi looking at her all worried. "A…Ayumi-chan!" she gasped; eased to see and hear a real person again. "Are you ok?" Ayumi ask and Alice nodded; this lack of sleep really went too far now, but what could she do? She hadn't slept for some time now since she simply couldn't stand those dreams anymore, so why did they had to enter her life now even while she was awake?

Finally Ayumi smiled and another voice appeared. "Go away from her." Before Alice or Ayumi understood this voice came from behind Ayumi, the little girl's eyes widened and she collapsed in front of Alice who froze again. Alice now looked into the eyes of Genta who looked all calm at Ayumi's body on the floor; a heavy looking microscope in his hand. "G…Genta-kun, what….?!" Alice stuttered while she saw a deep red puddle spreading form Ayumi's head, it was the same kind of red that covered the microscope in Genta's hand. "He must be infected too." Alice heard a scream from her left side and the next second the cupboard with glass doors fell over and on the place where Genta had been standing Alice saw nothing more than the remnants of the cupboard that broke while crushing the boy beyond its weight. "N…no!" she said, her throat denied her the ability to scream while she glared at Mitsuhiko who appeared in the corner where the cupboard had been standing. "It's ok Alice. They had to die, he was a cannibal and so was she" Mitsuhiko explained, lunacy in his eyes while he walked up to her. "No…! M…Mitsuhiko!" she wasn't even sure if she had said or though this; her voice fully gave up, so she couldn't do anything but shaking her head in disbelieve. "They… they were our friends! Why did you kill them?!" she ran her hands over her eyes and her hair, searching for something supporting to grab.

"Because he's a cannibal!" a sober voice interrupted them, followed by something slightly bigger than Alice hitting Mitsuhiko so he and this person hit the floor hard. Alice rushed over to the two fighting kids to see that Mitsuhiko had been attacked by Ai who stood up after sometime, running her hands over her trousers to smear of some blood from them. "A…Ai!" Alice forced her voice to say; she couldn't believe what she saw, this must be wrong! But doubtlessly Mitsuhiko lay on the floor behind the cupboard; a scalpel stuck in his throat and wide, empty eyes. Alice couldn't stand this anymore, her legs gave in and she fell down onto the floor, just some inches away from Ayumi's corpse. She glared at Ai, unbelieving and desperately searching for an answer. Ai was only focused on getting off the blood of her hands with this sober and slightly annoyed look of hers while she said to Alice without looking at her. "Don't you hate killing someone without being prepared to do so, too? The blood just won't come off."

"That's why I prefer shooting someone" a distinctively rough voice replied, followed by a screaming shot, a bright light and Ai hitting the floor close to Alice. She couldn't move, she glared at the person who just shot her best friend and couldn't even speak. Kato was standing there, the smoking weapon in his hand and finally he lowered it, looking at the corpses on his floor. "Cannibalism gets people to doing horrible things to their friends. Parents kill children, wives kill husbands… but I killed them, didn't I?"

Kato's look changed into an untypical melancholy and he raised the weapon to his head "that's why no one should blame them for what they do, but we do it though… Well in the end we can only judge ourselves, right bow-girl?" and with a last shot Kato shot himself and collapsed and left back Alice who couldn't do anything more than glare. She barely recognized the horribly insane laughter that came from the desk, everything happened too fast, everything had ended to fast and now she just looked at the desk and saw a little brown haired girl sitting on top of the desk; laughing this hard that she nearly fell off of it.

"Bravo!" she cheered with a kind of happiness only a child could show, while she clapped and laughed with tears in her eyes. "Everyone's dead! And I didn't need to do a thing! Soo much fun." Alice simply glared at her while the Alice on the desk slowly calm down, finally she breathed out and smiled directly at her "weren't they awesome? They were so cruel and I could still feel their character behind it."

"_She's talking about them, like they were actors performing a play"_ Alice last piece of sanity recognized, while her cannibal-self gave her a sudden dispraising look "geez, you could at least be a _little_ happy. You don't get the chance to see something like this very often." The little cannibal looked at her like a mother who was slightly disappointed her daughter didn't like what she showed to her, but then she smiled again "anyways, this was only the beginning and I'm sure you will enjoy the main part; believe me!"

"_The main part?!"_

"Come over here." The cannibal ordered happily and pointed at the place to its right side; next to the desk where some sort of chair waited for Alice; she hadn't seen it before. "The point of view is much better."

Alice couldn't tell what made her stand up, but obediently she walked over to the smiling child and sat down on the chair; judging from her size she was Lilly again but also this seemed absolutely normal to her by the time she sat down and looked at the room, covered with corpses that stopped looking like her friends; it were just people and though she felt sorry for them she didn't knew them.

"They didn't really die… right?" Lilly ask lowly, like speaking to someone more important than herself and though the cannibal-Alice didn't seemed to dislike the question it replied reluctantly "nah, it's a play. It'd be horribly boring if everyone would die in the beginning; I'm sure they'll appear again."

"Oh, I see" she said, not sure if she really understood what the cannibal said, but she had understood something else; this was one of these dreams again. She had fallen asleep and was dreaming and though this meant her friends were still alive there was something that made her feel sick.

"If this is one of my dreams with you again… it means you are the one in control at the moment, right? You are out there with them."

The cannibal turned around to her and tilted its head in serious confusion. "Huh? How can I be out there if I'm here?"

Lilly clenched her teeth angrily "see, I'm no idiot! I know enough about split personalities! The host, me, falls asleep and the alternate ego, you, can be active then; afterwards the host doesn't remember a thing. That's why I don't know about what you did! So this silly antidote didn't work."

The cannibal grinned "funny. You say you are no idiot and then you say something that proves you are."

"What?!" Alice snapped, hating not to know what this thing was doing with her, but to her surprise the cannibal smiled caring and says with a gentle tone. "Why don't you get it? Cannibals don't work like a split personality; they never did before and don't do today. You don't remember attacking anyone, because you never did; neither you nor me."

Alice stared at it with wide eyes. This couldn't be true! Most likely it just wanted to play a game with her; of that she felt sure. "In this play" the cannibal continued and looked at the heavy door of the office "we don't even play a bit part. We are just the audience; we never know what happens before it actually happens. We can only sit here and watch what goes on, we can decide which characters we do like and which we hate, we can even judge them and clap when it's over, but that's it."

And with something very sad in its tone it said "we are separated from the actors; unable to get involved with them no matter how much we'd want to; we are the audience, just the two of us, while the rest of the world will get its chance to play a role; though just a small one."

Lilly knitted her eyebrows; what did it want? This was no usual game it played with her… A sudden move in front of her made her wince and the cannibal Alice laid its finger on its lips and whispered "here we go. The main part is about to start." And with these words the handle of the door got pushed down and slowly the heavy wooden door opened, just like it had never been locked. And while the leading part, the actor everyone had waited to see entered the stage Lilly felt choked.

-Ai-

"In here" Kato's rough voice ordered while he unlocked a huge wooden door. Ai and the others entered the office that looked so much like a laboratory, but she didn't look as much at the room as she looked at Alice. Ever since they had left the room Alice seemed unwell, but Ai'd though she simply disliked her new outfit; now she started to doubt this theory. Alice was sweating and seemed to have some trouble with breathing and no matter how Ai tried to blame this on the hot weather it worried her.

While she saw the kids keeping Kato busy she pulled Conan aside; he must have seen it too. "Kudo" she whispered when they had reached a place where she thought they could talk and his look told her he'd really seen it. "Yeah, I know… Kato said he used a lot of chemical for the antidote… maybe one of them causes such symptoms."

Ai knitted her eyebrows "Kato really told you what his antidote contains?" she wondered and Conan nodded, fast he explained to her what Kato told him while she'd been with Alice and in the end she twitched her mouth. "So he recognized APTX4869… well I think as long as he doesn't know what it is actually is doing we should be safe... also it shouldn't be too easy to find out about it for him, since APTX4869 was designed not to attract attention, even during a autopsy, but still…"

A gasping sound interrupted their conversation and when Ai turned around she saw Alice glaring at the glassy cage on the desk with white eyes; her face had lost all color and she mumbled something Ai couldn't hear. Then Alice threw a glance at the cupboard close to her and even though Ai couldn't spot anything at this cupboard, it seemed to scare Alice to death. "Something's wrong!" Ai mumbled and within this second Conan rushed past her and up to Alice who backed off of him like he was a ghost. "Alice?" Ai saw that now Ayumi, Genta and Mitsuhiko had recognized something was wrong and they slowly approach Alice who doubtlessly suffered from some kind of panic attack.

Ai saw her turning around to Ayumi and to her surprise she made a weak step up to the girl before she collapsed on the floor. "ALICE!" the little girl shrieked and now even Ai and Kato walked over to them. Alice was shivering all over while she lay on the floor, half conscious. Conan raised her body slightly up and a clam voice said "dun worry. 3 out of 5 don't tolerate the antidote without side effects like fever, hallucinations, headache, etc." Kato said and Ai saw him reaching into his pocket; she hoped for something that would help Alice's condition, but he simply pulled out a lighter and some cigarettes and started smoking while walking up to his desk. "You!" this hating shout had left her throat before she could stop it; she simply couldn't stand scientist like him, who only cared about their experiments without thinking about people who could get hurt during those, too often Ai had have to deal with them in her past.

"Haibara!" Conan's voice reminded her of where she was and she looked down at her friends, suddenly recognizing she was the only one with medical knowledge beyond them. "W… we can't do much" she said hesitantly "hopefully it's just a shock and will subside soon, just let's get her off of the floor." Genta was the first one to react, he lifted the brown-haired up and they fast found some old pitch they could put her on, then they simply had to wait.

For half an hour nothing happened, then Kato stood up from his papers and told them he'd now need another sample of her blood and since he walked over to her with his weapon ready to hand they had to allow him to get what he wanted though none of them moved away.

After some more time Kato had to see that it was no easy task to spend a whole night with some kids in a small room. Soon one of them needed a toilet, Genta was starving like always and since Alice remained unconscious Kato decided he could unlock the door and he even let them go out on their own. Ai and Conan never moved. "Found anything interesting?!" Ai snapped after a whole hour had past and she felt she could no longer stand the waiting, but Kato ignored her, he still went through his papers, seemingly something confused him. "I hope so, otherwise all this would be for nothing" a low voice said and Ai turned around to the pitch.

Alice had opened her eyes and looked exhaustedly at her and Conan. Ai felt release rushing over her; so it really just had been a shock, but something still kept her from smiling though. Alice looked exhausted but… different. Not different about her surface, but just like something inside had changed, or was this simply Ai's imagination? And if not… was this change a good one? "You really scared us" Conan said while Alice sat up and both exchanged eased looks before Alice smiled "sorry. I lacked some sleep to get everything sorted; a lot happened the last days."

And then, out of the sudden, her smile vanished and she bended a little forward to whisper something so Kato, who was still too focused on his papers to even recognize Alice had woken up, wouldn't hear them. "We are in danger. I never have been the cannibal."

Ai and Conan glared at her while she seriously replied a look and whispered "Ai could you have an eye on the kids? I need to discuss this with Conan; we need a plan!" Ai scanned Alice; her face was still all pale and she was sweating and shivering, it was obvious she didn't feel well, so this must be important to her; that important that she didn't want to waste another moment. Ai fast looked at Conan and he nodded to show her he'd be ok with that so she agreed, too and watched her two friends leaving the room.

"What kind of scientist are you?" she asked when she was sure her friends had have enough time to walk away; now she would question this Kato a little more "you simply let your guinea pig escape in the middle of your experiment?"

Kato looked up at Ai and for a moment she was sure she'd look at exactly one of those scientist she had known from her work in the organization; with arrogance in his look he replied "I didn't let her escape, I just decided to expand her cage a little and offer her a new toy; I'm surprised you let this happen."

Ai blinked, not only that Kato seemed to be aware of what happened around him, he told her she was the one who'd missed out something important "w…what?! What do you mean with toy?!" Kato smiled tiredly and replied "c'mon. You must have recognized her change of character. The last time it was the boy with the glasses she wanted to kill the most right? And now you let her walk away with just him."

Ai felt her stomach tensing "and what about your precious antidote?! Shouldn't she be healed by now?!" Something new entered Kato's mind; frustration and sadness. "Yeah… well I can't tell why, but… the antidote failed."

"What?!" Ai nearly shrieked "but she obviously reacted to it! She collapsed, so how can you tell it failed?!" Kato reached for two sheds of paper and held them up so Ai could see them and though Kato couldn't know it but Ai understood them, he explained though "The reaction could have been a fake… maybe it was real and she reacted to something, I dunno. I just know that her blood values are exactly the same as before… Your friend is a cannibal, and not even my antidote can change this."

Kato was right and Ai saw that; nothing had changed at that meant the antidote had failed; not only _'not fully worked yet'_… it had done nothing. Ai hooked her fingers into the pitch. Alice was a cannibal, no antidote seemed to be able to change this and now she was alone with Conan. While Ai slowly understood this fact Kato got up and walked over to the door. "What are you doing?" she called after him and he replied with one hand around his weapon "erasing the cannibal. If you're lucky I'll be able to rescue your friend, too."

* * *

_Please leave a review to help me improve :}_


	12. The leading Part

**_[Act 12] - ||The leading part||_**

-Conan-

Without words or glances to be exchanged Alice and Conan left Kato's office behind and she turned left; just to the stairwell. She walked ahead, fast without looking back if he was following like she knew he would anyways… and he did, though his thoughts were rushing. He clearly saw something had changed, somehow Alice had made a decision and now she wanted to talk to him without even taking the time to rest a little; Conan could clearly see her difficulties with walking straight and she was breathing audible, but she also seemed determined.

"Lil, where…?" he began but her voice cut him off "not here, up there." Without turning around she pointed at the landing between the 2nd and 3rd floor where they head to. And then she added like sensing this answer wouldn't satisfy him "I need to talk to you in private; away from nosy ears." Somehow this answer only supported the tensed feeling in his stomach but he kept following her up to the landing. Some time past while they stood there and finally Alice turned around to Conan; increasing his uneasy feeling. Her eyes scanned him while her face showed true sorrow. _"So I was right"_ Conan thought, knowing his feelings hadn't lied to him; now he just wondered what she would say.

For some time however she didn't say a word at all, she just looked at him, like she was still not sure if there would be another way, but the fact that she had decided to do it instantly after waking up told him she would do it nevertheless. _"No or never, this was what you though, right?"_ he pondered while he answered her look and finally she opened her mouth. "You know what's about to come?"

A question, she wanted to put the cards on the table… that's why she wanted to avoid nosey ears. Slowly he nodded; he knew he mustn't be careless. He needed to see what she had before he'd reveal his cards fully. "Yeah, though I wasn't entirely sure until now" he replied scanning her face for a sign of her next step. "Same with me" she mumbled with a sad smile, his chance. "Why now? What happened?" as secret as possible he tried to look around; in case of a sudden fight he needed to know about possible hide outs surrounded them. Of course there was barely anything; just an empty landing, behind Alice a door and behind him… nothing but stairs, leading down back into the 2nd floor.

Alice shrugged "I don't know…I never believed in dreams that open your eyes to something you already know… somewhere deep inside, but that is basically what happened." Her voice seemed shaky; _"she isn't fully sure yet… I may be able to change her mind"_ shot through Conan's head. Slowly he made some steps to the left wall and Alice seemed to take the chance to move a little gladly, she moved over to the right so they started to slowly circle each other. "So… why do you asked me to talk to you away from the others?"

Something new entered her eyes, was it guilt? "I didn't want Kato or someone else to interrupt… See, I don't want a fight! I just want to talk… maybe we can agree on something?" Finally, very slowly, Conan stopped walking and so did Alice; they had now swapped positions and the door was in his back without her recognizing. "Agree on something?" he wondered out loud "so _you_ think you a doing the right and I'm wrong?!" Alice eyes filled with tears, so this was why she wanted to talk to him; she really wanted to convince him. "So you think I'd… want to become like you?" he asked, still unbelieving she could really think so, but she nodded "yeah! I mean… you once were."

"And I hated every second of it" he replied and saw more tears in her eyes "that's a lie" she mumbled "It's not. I can't believe you seriously think I'm going to let you change me into a… a…"

He didn't even wanted to put it in words but he figured that this was exactly what she wanted. Crying she made a step up to him "Shinichi you are a cannibal, please let me help you!"

* * *

-Ai-

Ai and Kato were running through the corridors of the 2nd floor; Alice and Conan remained gone. Ai'd decided she needed to follow this mad man with his gun before he would find her friends. So it was all a lie; not only that Alice really was a cannibal she also wanted to kill Conan. Ai felt horrible, she'd been betrayed and when Kato really was right… "There must be another way to cure her!" she called while they ran around a new corner "if you see one then tell me" the man shouted back and suddenly he stopped "they aren't here… maybe…" and he turned around, rushing back to his office. Ai fast followed him, what should she do else? And after some further corridors they past by his office again and stopped… at the stairwell. Kato pushed a finger against his lips to hush Ai and raised his weapon.

"Cannibals can't be trusted, they mess with the fact you trust the persons they once were and use every chance they get to kill their prey; so if you ever get the chance to kill them instead… well if you love your life you better should."

A scream prevented Ai from throwing back an answer "here we go" Kato said and started to climb up the stairs. "NOOO!" another scream yelled through the stairwell and to Ai's surprise had this scream sounded clearly female; Alice was screaming, but why? Ai and Kato rushed up until they reached the corner to the landing to between floor 2 and 3. Before they could run around this corner to see what was happening they heard Alice screaming again and then the stairwell got fulfilled with the noise of something hitting the floor and falling down the stairs. "What…?!" Ai heard Kato gasp as he looked around the corner and when she peeked around it too she got hit by something brown fast falling down at her.

Ai went to the floor and hit it aback with Alice remaining motionless on top of her; for some reason she had fallen down the stairs. Ai blinked to look at her friend slowly sitting up; seemingly she had hit the stairs hard with her right wrist since she supported it with her hand and twisted her mouth in pain; a comparatively light injury thinking that she just fell down a long part of the stairwell, if Ai hadn't cushioned her fall she'd maybe hit the ground with her head and would be dead. _"She wouldn't be; she's a cannibal and immortal"_ Ai remembered and stared at Alice.

A clicking from above made both girls turn around and look at Kato who was aiming for Alice's head "give me a reason" he snarled "just a single reason to release the world from your presence and I swear I will."

Alice, likely still dizzy form her fall, couldn't answer but Ai asked "Alice, where… where's Conan?" Ai and Alice's eyes met and Ai saw them shivering like they wanted to tell her something her mouth couldn't but Ai wasn't able to read it. Out of the blue Kato grabbed Alice by her wrist and pulled her up; she screamed since he'd grabbed the injured arm but he shook her until she stopped screaming and pushed the weapon against her forehead. "Aaaah" he breathed out in satisfaction "there is my reason. Murder, you really eat this boy, didn't you? Well save your excuses for your Maker, you will soon meet him in the afterlife."

* * *

-Alice-

Alice directly looked into the muzzle of Kato's pistol. Why did this happen to her? She felt that this weapon would kill her; she simply felt it. Kato didn't had a reason to spare her and she couldn't move, she was just stuck. Some seconds ago she'd been pushed down the stairs and barely escaped death and now this… they still didn't got a thing.

"Bye bye" Kato mumbled and aimed for her and she glared at him, even unable to close her eyes. "NO!" Something red-brown rushed past her and placed itself between Alice and the weapon. "A…Ai?" The girl had simply gotten up and now she stood in Kato's way to kill Alice who had fallen down onto the floor behind her friend. "I won't let you kill her" she said and Kato angrily glared at her, ready to throw back an answer but Ai tilted her head around to Alice and added "not before she didn't told us why."

Alice hands on which she was leaning nearly gave in, but Kato slowly lowered his weapon. "And what then? What happens after she told you everything?" Ai remained silent and both Kato and Alice understood what this means. Half angry half satisfied Kato finally agreed and lifted Alice up from the ground, carrying her back to his office while she did her best to look back at the landing at the stairs, but Conan remained gone.

Some minutes later Alice sat on Kato's floor, a handcuff tied her to the close heating and Kato and Ai sat down on chairs next to her and while Alice still couldn't decide if the fact that Kato had a pair of handcuffs in his office should surprise her or not, she suddenly remembered what was just happening here. "Ask you questions" Kato ordered Ai and Alice's eyes met Ai's looks which couldn't be any more unreadable. "Ai" she begged but Ai simply asked "where's Edogawa-kun?"

"I don't know!" Alice replied loudly, why didn't they got it? Why did they waste any time? "So you can't remember?" Ai's tone changed, slightly more worried and slightly more understanding. "No!" Alice shook her head "I remember everything! I simply… ok you see it's not me! I'm not the cannibal it's… him."

Ai and Kato glared at her. Alice hadn't wanted to say this in front of Kato; she knew what he thought of and did to cannibals, but there was simply no time to waste here anymore. "I told him I want to help him and he… pushed me down the stairs."

Ai knitted her eyebrows _"doesn't sound like Kudo at all"_ they seemed to say; an expression Alice was scared off, because she thought exactly the same. "So… you never have been the cannibal, but he was. Then you wanted to talk to him all alone, _though_ you knew he was highly dangerous and now he is gone…?" Kato asked; it was obvious he didn't believe her. "Y…yes" she replied, not even she would believe herself in such a situation. "How…" Ai suddenly begun "how did you know it was him? Just some hours ago you weren't even sure it wasn't you."

Alice bit her lower lip. She had an answer… but this wouldn't help her at all. "I… had this dream." Ai stared at her in disbelieve, but Kato chortled "of cooooourse. A dream, really? I'll tell you what happened" and he turned around to Ai. "Your little friend asked away this boy to talk to her in private, then she recognized how very yummy he looks and simply tore him apart; a new hallucination because of my antidote made her tumble and fall down the stairs where she had no better excuse than a dream."

"No!" Alice shouted, this was a lie but it sounded so much more logical than the truth. "Ai, I'm not lying! We need to help him! I… ok it was a dream but it just helped me to understand something."

"What dream?" Ai asked, obviously feeling uneasy standing between Kato and Alice, not entirely trusting any of them and Alice couldn't help it but tell them about her whole dream. About her hallucinating how they all died and then how the cannibal told her they were simply the audience. And then what happened after the door opened…

" And with these words the handle of the door got pushed down and slowly the heavy wooden door opened, just like it had never been locked. A small person appeared, dressed in a white shirt and a black suit. In a way it reminded me of my own cannibal-self, only that this one didn't looked this battered; in fact only the devilish smile on its lips distinguished this cannibal from the Conan I know. "I…impossible" my stuttering faded beyond the loud and jolly cheering and clapping of the cannibal Alice. "Isn't he awesome?!" she asked with her head tilted to me, obviously enjoying this while I felt choked for a moment… then I grew angry. "Do you think me to believe you?!" Just some seconds ago you made me see all my friends killing each other! I won't believe you again, especially while your illusion is this hilarious." Instantly the cannibal-Alice's facial expression changed. Every trace of joy vanished and she looked at me with hating eyes. Slowly she got up onto the table and looked at me, now on my eyelevel. "You dirty piece of arrogance" she screamed furiously though her tiny body barely moved "how can you _dare_ calling him hilarious!" While screaming her face had lost all color, only her entirely empty eyes and bloodstained lips kept her from looking like a piece from a black-and-white horror movie. "Why are you here anyways?! Can't you simply die? DIIIE!" She had run her hands through her hair over her eyes and was shaking in pure madness and… tears. "Don't worry" a calm voice appeared and I turned around, back to where this illusion had been standing, the whole time looking calmly at us with his arms crossed.

I scanned this cannibal-Conan again, feeling sick. It was more like looking at a reflection of him in a twisted mirror than at the real Conan. At the same time what I saw looked exactly like him and still… it had nothing in common with him. "But…!" Alice sniffed and glance at Conan with wet eyes "she destroys everything." A sudden expression entered Conan's face I knew from the real Conan, caringly he smiled and Alice sniffed again and hopped down from the table and rushed over to him where they met in a hug. My stomach tensed while they slowly kissed each other. "Ok, stop this right here!" I shouted "stop this illusion, I mean it!" After some further seconds the cannibals stopped kissing and Alice replied with an evil smile "idiot. This is nothing I can stop. He is here; he's been all the time." And turning around to Conan again she said gently "can't we kill her? She's silly and a waste of time."

Conan ran his hand over her cheek and looked at Lilly; no trace of warmth in his glance. "I don't know… I kinda like her. Doesn't she look scrumptious?"

"STOP TALKING!" I screamed "I don't want to hear a word from you; you're not him!" Alice snickered "see? A waste of time. Now we need to explain her what she already knows."

"What…?" I began but they seemed to ignore me and Conan continued "you mean like that fact I haven't slept the entire week and barely eaten since cannibals don't need sleep or food. Nah, come on she knows that." His words rang a bell somewhere in my mind. "Yeah exactly like this! Or the fact that you avoided her because you didn't want to infect her too early."

"N… no" I began, but somehow I already knew they weren't lying, I knew what they said… I knew the pieces but they started to put them together into a complete picture. "Don't be mean" Conan began again "I mean she can impossible have overlooked the fact that not only she had been in the hospital while the cannibal-powder was stolen, but me too." Both laughed while I realized how blind I had been this entire week."

* * *

_Please leave a review to help me improve :}_


	13. Turning Point

**_[Act 13] - ||Turning Point||_**

-Kato-

Kato's hand was all calm while holding his weapon ready to shoot. He knew this wasn't a good sign, it told him that he was nervous; he wasn't a person to shiver so his body tensed instead when he grew nervous. This hadn't turned out how he planned. He and his team had collected every information available about the night half a year ago and all he knew was that this girl, Alice, had spent quiet a lot time with the boy before attacking him… he'd been sure they'd have enough time to catch her in surprise… now it seemed that he'd been horribly wrong.

And on top of that he had to listen to this poor excuse of the cannibal now that obviously brought the girl, Ai her name was, to start doubting what they already knew. "Ai, please!" the squeaky voice of the cannibal begged in faked desperation "I'm not lying!... Ai!"

The blue-eyed girl shifted her head uneasily. "Ok, that's it" Kato decided, he needed to do something; now, or he knew he couldn't stand this anymore. "You got your answers and now it's time to say goodbye for her" he told Ai and lifted his weapon. Instantly he felt better, he regained some of the control he had lost and now he would make up for his mistake; at least slightly. "No, wait!" the girl tried to stop him and he twitched his mouth "I know it's not easy for you because she looks like your friend, but I'm sorry. Your friend is dead, she has died the day… the day she got infected" he finished his sentence avoiding looking at one of them but Ai simply made a step up to the brown-haired monster and said all calm.

"Where is he?"

"I dunno" she replied false tears shaking her voice.

"Is he really… dead?"

"NO!" her eyes grew wider; she must have understood that this would be her death sentence. "Ai, I would never… ok I know this cannibal tried to, but it's not here! Just me, please!"

"Cut it off!" Kato interrupted them and pushed Ai roughly away. His patience ended right there, he needed to get rid of this thing in front of him; erasing her meant erasing his fault… at least in part. While he raised the silver revolver up at her head he saw the brown eyes widening even more with tears shimmering, ready to roll down her face while her pupils slightly shivered while she looked at him. He released the safety of his weapon; this wasn't the first infected child he would see dying and why should it make a difference if he was the one to give her the death blow? Another tear dropped down on her face and rolled down her cheek to her mouth that was forming soundless words; one word…

Kato hesitated. For some time nothing happened. "Maybe…" he mumbled all to himself "maybe I can make up another antidote" he nodded and lowered the weapon, just inches. "Yeah… I need to get some ingredients to kick in stronger…"

He focused his eyes on the brown-eyed again and saw a light trace of bliss in those eyes what drove him angry again. "First I'll get out the humans, however! They shouldn't stay close to such a cannibal" he snapped and looked at Ai who stood nearby, looking all shocked. "We'll now leave to find your friends, I'll get you out of here and later I'll return to get this" he pointed at the cannibal with his weapon "and try to heal it."

Ai seemed to be released but he saw some movement from the cannibal, it was shaking its head "No!" she glared at Kato and Ai again "you can't leave me here! He'll return and kill me!" Kato blinked, he hadn't expected this monster to continue its play after she'd been spared. "Ai! Listen to me, if you leave me here, tied up, he will find me and…"

Kato twisted his mouth in anger but the little girl shook her head and walked up to him to the door "now I know that you're lying… how can you think I'd believe something like this? The Alice I knew would never blame Conan… you killed both of them, right? And now you dare using Alice's face and voice." The blue-eyed walked through the door and Kato saw something strange in the eyes of the cannibal she left back; hurt feelings. "Ai" she begged "Ai-nee don't leave me here like this. Please, Ai!" To stop this voice he left the room and fast closed the door behind his back.

* * *

-Ayumi-

"Genta-kun!" Ayumi moaned and with Mitsuhiko at her side she trailed after the boy. "We shouldn't go too far away" she called and tried again to stop Genta from walking deeper into the hospital. "But when will we ever get a chance to get to see an abandoned hospital?" Genta called back, still walking fast. "D…don't worry Ayumi-chan" Mitsuhiko suddenly said "he's kinda right. And it's not like we'd something else to do; it could take the whole night 'till Alice wakes up again."

Ayumi twisted her mouth uneasily. She disliked Mitsuhiko when he was like that, actually he wanted to disagree with her but he didn't dare so he tried to find a compromise and that annoyed her even more than Genta's egoistic behavior. _'Well, your reasons for wanting to go back are slightly egoistic, too, aren't they?'_ her conscience whispered. Ayumi had to admit that, the main reason why she wanted to go back right now where that she really wanted to be there when Alice would wake up. _'At least she's my friend'_ she told herself but knew this wasn't the reason. The honest reason, she barely could admit to herself, was that she knew what would happen when Alice would wake up. Everyone would worry about her; everyone would ask if she was ok and what they could do for her and Conan… he would look all eased that she was ok.

Ayumi's stomach twisted, _'why her?!' _The little girl walked slower and let Mitsuhiko catch up with Genta. _'Why couldn't she stay in England?! I bet she'd find someone there, so why is she here and always around?! Always around him?_' She clenched her fists and stopped walking entirely; jealousy shook her small body. _'She's my friend, but I hate this about her! I wish… I wish she'd have to suffer as much as I have. I really wish… something really horrible would happen to her!'_

Shocked about her own thoughts the girl started to cry. "Ayumi-chan?" A gentle voice appeared and made Ayumi wince. She looked around. Genta and Mitsuhiko had vanished and she was all alone… but this voice definitely belonged to…

"Conan-kun?" she asked, her voice low.

For some moments nothing happened and then, finally, a boy stepped out of the shadows of a corridor next to her, a caring smile on his lips. "Are you ok?" he asked and Ayumi's heart stopped for a heartbeat. He looked great as always and there was nothing she wanted more than run and hug him, but something stopped her… She felt guilty.

Ayumi slowly shook her head "No… no I'm not ok." She saw Conan slowly walking closer to her with one hand in his pocket while his look told her to explain herself. "I'm… I'm a horrible person!" she burst out, tears streaming down her face. "I want my friends to suffer and that's so horrible." She tried to wipe away her tears, but there were simply too many of them. She hung her head to hide her pain from him so she didn't see his face while he replied "I don't think you're a horrible person."

Though her tears kept falling down he hushed her sobbing, she couldn't believe he was this nice to her. "Far from it" he added "you are a very kind girl, but maybe you don't see it yourself." Slowly Ayumi raised her head, did he know how she felt while he said something like this, she wondered, but his look told her he did. "C…Conan-kun" she began and he continued "you say you want your friends to suffer, but maybe that's not it. Maybe you just want the best for them… and when they don't see what the best is, we sometimes need to help them seeing it."

While saying that he'd slowly reached out his hand to wipe away some tears from Ayumi's cheek that had grown highly pink. "You…" she began, not knowing what he wanted to tell her "shouldn't you be with Alice?" she asked, regretting it right away because he pulled his hand away again. Something very sad entered his eyes "Ayumi, Alice is dead."

Ayumi's eyes widened, this couldn't be true. "Kato killed her and now I need to go on without her… but I need someone to help me" he continued and before Ayumi could say or think anything else he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. _'He feels so cold'_ was the only thing that shot through Ayumi's mind while she was shaking all over. 'Well actually she is still breathing, but this Kato destroyed everything. He took every chance away to rescue her and that's why she has to die, to spare her at least some pain."

Ayumi's mind wasn't fully working while he held her this close, but it was still able to recognize that something was wrong with him; what he said made no sense at all. "C…Conan-kun?" she mumbled scared but he interrupted her. "Don't worry about that, this is something I'll take care of, for now it's just important to save as many people as I can… as we can."

And the last thing Ayumi's mind did was recognizing a whole new level of pain, then she fell unconscious while she was sure that her wish had been fulfilled.

* * *

-Alice-

Tsk, you want to help _me_? his voice echoed in Alice's mind.

Sure! We can, don't worry. Just get some of Kato's antidote and it will be ok. Now she knew how naïve she'd been, back then in the stairwell.

So you trust this guy more than me? his answer had been and she hadn't known what to reply.

The memories of their conversation were washing over her while she'd leaned her head against the heating. Sometime after Ai and Kato had left she had stopped screaming for them, maybe he would hear her and then… Maybe as a cause of the antidote's side effects, she had felt all dizzy and now she knew she wasn't able to move, her whole body was numb. It felt like a panic attack; just like the feeling she had while being stuck in a real tight shaft. Too much happened without having the place and it slowly crushed her, while she kept remembering what happened. "I'm not lying" she mumbled. She'd seen the sadness in his eyes while he said it and she remembered his voice while he mumbled too bad I can't convince you… please believe me this is for your own sake; to spare you pain. And she had felt him pushing her down the stairs, she hadn't made it up and she hadn't hallucinated it. "I'm not lying."

She felt that this was the end, somewhere in this story she'd chosen the wrong turn and ended up here; dead end, checkmate, no further moves possible. Weakly she pulled her wrist against the handcuff that tied her to the heater again; much too weak to impress the solid material.

"_You're giving up?"_

She nodded slowly. Exactly, this was what she wanted.

"_So we'll sit here and wait for him to get us and kill… well kill you, what should also mean my death however?"_

Tired she looked around without raising her head; she didn't felt surprised when she looked into her own eyes, staring out of the face of this evil copy of herself; too often within the last week she'd made it up.

"_How boring"_ it complained and supported itself with its hands on its legs, it kneeled close to Alice looking at her like a child would look at a little animal that was slowly dying, confused and slightly sad.

"Then leave. Go and find the cannibal and spent your time with it; just leave me alone." The hallucination leaned back and sighed _"I wish I could, but since you made me up I'm prettied tied to one spot… Why do you call him like that anyways?"_

Alice leaned her back against the heating to look straight at her cannibal-self. "Who? The cannibal? Why shouldn't I? Is that rude to things like you?"

"_Nah… I just mean he has a name and he's your friend, so you should care at least a little bit more."_

Alice blinked, a clear feeling of confusion appeared in her clouded mind. "Name? Friend? It pushed me down the stairs, what kind of friend is that?"

The hallucination tilted its head and for the first time Alice saw herself while looking at its worried face "you can't forget about him" a low begging lay in its voice. "He maybe lost a bit of the personality you're use to, but he's still him…"

"Who?"

"_And he never forgot 'bout you while you were a cannibal. He never gave up, so you can't, too!"_

"Who?!"

"_Why are you so cruel to him? Why do you give up? Why?"_

"WHO?! Who the hell are you talking about?" The hallucination had brought her at least enough back to reality to shout at it and now it lowly replied. _"Shinichi."_

Something in her chest tensed "Shi…"

"_I think Shinichi needs you and you're sitting here and feel sorry for yourself."_

She shook her head, her whole body started to shake "this is not true, he isn't here." She tried to sort the words she just heard while her body hardly tried to get away from the heating; she needed space or she knew she'd suffocate. "He would never do this!"

"That's because he's ill."

"He would never…!"

"_Look at me!"_ Could a hallucination really grab ones shoulders? Alice wondered while this obviously could. _"I said he's ill and that you can't sit around like this any longer. So get your lazy ass up and help him. You should know that a fight against a cannibal isn't a job for a single person, one needs help to fight them."_

"Why… why do you say that? Why do you help me?" she asked "aren't you a cannibal yourself?"

The hallucination smiled. _"Don't get me wrong, I'm fully on the side of the cannibals, but if you get killed or just sit around I will miss the show. You instead will surely regret this for the rest of your life"_

Alice nodded, she got up slowly, slightly shaking, but she managed it. "Seeing an evil version of myself that maybe now saved my life… shouldn't this tell me that my mind suffers from some kind of serious damage? An anti-cannibal drug and my mind don't seem to make a good couple… one could easily think I'm a nut"

"_Certainly, but you always made it despite this fact"_ the hallucination agreed and now, that her mind was clearer again, Alice turned around to where the handcuffs enchained her to the heating. "So, what are you going to do?" it asked from behind her. Alice scanned the pipe of the heating. "Doing what you said, getting my lazy ass up and fight this evil cannibal that tries to kill my Shinichi."

Her eyes stopped "Talking about nuts… If I'd be able to open this screw nut I could push away the pipe and slide the handcuffs off of the heating."

She happily turned around to her cannibal-self to see what she thought about this plan to see her twitching her mouth. "What?" she asked.

"_Honestly? A pun in such a situation?"_ it sighed _"and in addition I dislike your plan. If you push away this pipe you will spill the hot water inside everywhere and burn yourself."_

Alice faced the screw; she knew her hallucination was right. "Well, maybe I'm fast enough and can pull it away, so it won't be too painful."

Ignoring her doubts she grabbed the screw nut and tried to open it. Her hand slipped but she felt the metal moving, this was an old screw on an old heating in an old hospital, she could make it. She slit her hand into the sleeve of Conan's old jacket and grabbed the screw with her covered hand again, her enchain hand on the pipe, ready to push it away fast to escape the hot water.

She focused, her body tensed. She had nearly forgotten about him, about the way he'd rescued her half a year ago and dozen times before. But now she knew it and she would save this memory, she would get out of this room and fight whatever was out there that separated them. Her grab on the screw increased and she felt the stuff of the jacket between her skin and the metal tightening. "I'll help you Shinichi" she decided "I'll come and help you!" She opened the screw and pulled the pipe away and slid the handcuffs over it while she felt the heat of the water she'd just spilled.

* * *

_Please leave a review to help me improve :}_


	14. Collecting props

**_[Act 14] - ||Collecting props||_**

_Ah minna, sorry for making you wait this long ^-^ as an excuse this chapter won't be parted into 3, but into 4 point of views ;*_

_Oh and I recognized I kept mentioning Alice's mad side, without really allowing you to see it, so I will make up for this now :} Enjoy watching how stress can affect the sanity of a person x3_

* * *

-Ai-

Ai followed the huge man through the dark hospital. They ran past barred windows and locked doors searching for the kids, they needed to leave this hospital. Though Ai was aware of this she felt no urge of running faster; she had entered the hospital with two friends at her side; two friends she had trusted, no matter what she sometimes said and now… Now there was only her left. A voice echoed in her head, she heard a male voice accusing her causing many deaths by developing a toxin. She felt his shoulders beyond her feet while getting a kitten out of a tree and she saw his face all lost in thought and now… now his bloody remnants should lie around somewhere in the hospital?

She hugged herself though she wasn't cold and stopped walking for a moment, even though it must have been sometime around 10 pm the air was still hot and muggy. Her eyes found some glass behind thick bars and she looked at her own reflection, this young face she still couldn't believe to be her own when another face appeared from behind. Dark brown eyes blinked at her and she remembered this weird girl she had met, how she had made her laugh in a time when everything seemed dark and now… now she seemed to be the reason for the darkness around.

"_No"_ Ai tried to shake this thought off. That wasn't true, this wasn't the Lilly she knew and not the Lilly she wanted to remember; this was a monster, a disease that disgusted as her friend and she mustn't allow it to replace Lilly in her memory.

"Hoi girl! Hear that?" Ai winced as Kato called over to her, he'd frozen in a corner some feet ahead and laid his finger onto his lips. Ai tried to focus on her surroundings again and after some seconds she recognized what Kato was talking about. She heard low voices, young, male, two of them, discussing, worried tone, not loud enough to get more than one words ever and anon. "Genta and Mitsuhiko!" she gasped finally as her brain linked the given information to her memory and Kato nodded, he symbolized her to follow him and walked around the corner up to the voices.

In a way Ai couldn't explain to herself she begged at this moment, she begged to see the kids, to see them healthy and busy with child-things just to remind her of the world outside of the hospital. She knew she needed this now; otherwise this world would slowly fade into some sort of fairytale one can't believe in. "Minna" she gasped toneless when she really saw them standing in the middle of the corridor.

Genta and Mitsuhiko discussing something, looking worried but healthy though and then they saw Ai. "Haibara-san!" they smiled eased and Ai knew something had happened to them, too. The bliss in their eyes about her presence told her. "What?" she simply asked - scared of the answer. "You… you haven't see Ayumi-chan, have you?" Genta mumbled.

"We saw her just some minutes ago!" Mitsuhiko tried an excuse. "But she kinda stood back and now… she must be around, I'm sure of that!" A voice within Ai told her that she was not, that this wouldn't be something they'd laugh about later on, because Ayumi hid behind a corner, she knew that this was serious, just why did she know that?

"You are right" Ai said even to her own surprise "the cannibal is chained up so there's nothing to be scared of in this old building." She ignored Genta's and Mitsuhiko's confused faced and glared up at Kato to see he agreed with her.

For the first time Ai felt disappointed not to see Kato's evil smile, he twitched his mouth all serious and finally shook his head. "I told ya I need to get you out as soon as possible… You know about Ito and this nurse, Sekai?"

"They… they're suspected to be infected, too, yes. But you have an antidote, so you cured them, right?... RIGHT?!"

Kato rubbed the back of his head slightly uneasy. "Hah… well you see if you suspect someone to be a cannibal you can't really force them to take the antidote… that's why I wrote this letter to your friend. She came here because she wanted to, so I could give her the antidote… Ito and Sekai however… well they wanted me to show them proper prove that they're infected and I didn't had any, so…"

"So they run around INFECTED?!" Ai shrieked, ignoring the highs of her voice. "No! No of course not…" Kato replied "I locked them away tonight, I hoped if I show them their leading cannibal is cured they'd allow me to administer them the antidote, too… I told a trainee to have an eye on them and sent me a SMS with what they are doing every 30 minutes… I haven't gotten one in an hour…"

Ai felt like laughing, just because this was so ridicules. "So, to sum up: You invited a dangerous monster into a hospital together with two other monsters that likely follow her blindly. Oh, wait by now it should be THREE supporters, if the trainee is still alive and then you evacuated the hospital, of course without telling anybody about your plan to prevent everyone from calling the police and then you let this monster OUT to kill someone and meet up with its SUPPORTERS to kill the rest of us?!" her voice shivered while talking, she couldn't keep it calm; not anymore.

"Don't talk about my business like you'd get it" Kato simply replied, regaining his angry mood and searching for something within his pockets again. "I'll get the three of you out and later I'll have a go on the cannibals."

"Hey and what about Ayumi?!" Genta interrupted the two of them and reminded Ai of his and Mitsuhiko's presence. "You said you lost her more than a minute ago?" Kato mumbled, his eyes focused onto his pockets "well likely she's already one of them, or dead."

"You!" the second time this day Ai couldn't keep her anger to herself anymore, how could this man dare to say something like that to _kids_?!

"Shht!" Kato suddenly hissed and hushed Ai and the boys; only for a little moment though. Ai didn't feel like dancing after his pipe anymore, but before she could start talking again she heard it. "Footsteps" she mumbled and everyone turned around to the direction of the corridor from where the steps where coming from.

Kato made some quick steps ahead and placed himself between the kids and the noise, with a clicking sound he put some bullets into his weapon. _'It had been unloaded for the whole time?!' _Ai recognized shocked about Kato's forward play-pretend while suddenly something appeared ahead of them.

"Ayumi… chan?"

"Hey minna" the little girl at the end of the corridor replied smiling.

* * *

-Alice-

Breathing heavily the girl sat on the floor in the dark office, a satisfied smile on her lips. She had made it away from that heating and though the handcuffs were now uselessly dangling down from her wrist she felt free again. After some moments she needed to catch her breath, she looked around; the room was empty and dark, only illuminated by the summer moon behind the window; hallucination-free. Though Alice knew the fact that the her hallucination wasn't permanent should ease her she felt sad; no matter that it only had been her imagination it had been someone to talk to.

She got up, this wouldn't stop her and neither would the pain she felt in her hands that had gotten slightly burned form the water of the heating. "Maybe this pain was enough wake my brain up" she mumbled, trying to explain what had made the hallucinated Alice vanish. She sighed; she mustn't forget what she had to do.

For now the most important thing to do was getting some of the antidote, but how were her chances that Kato had simply kept it somewhere in this hospital in a room she could enter… If she was a creepy 'doctor' like Kato, she'd keep the antidote somewhere no one would often go… somewhere always available for herself, but still easy to lock. Like his office. She hesitated, would Kato really leave her alone in a room with his precious antidote when he thought her a cannibal?

"Sure, the worst case would be that I'd administer it all to myself and this would only serve his purpose" she decided, so the chances that she could find a buffer-antidote within the room she was now weren't this bad.

Spurred by this idea she started scanning the room. She rushed through it, leaving no shed of paper unturned and no drawer unopened. But no matter where she looked… her search remained fruitless. "Onegai" she mumbled breathily every time she erased a new hideout form her list "onegai! It must be here."

She couldn't tell how much time had passed while she was searching. She was sure it had been quite a lot; searching in an all dark room took its time… But finally she couldn't spot any place she hadn't looked at anymore. She was standing in the middle of Kato's office, spinning around, desperately searching for a last glance of hope, but she couldn't find one. "Why?" She couldn't see why Kato wouldn't have had some of it in his office "Why?!" Her legs gave in and she hit the floor aback. "WHYY!?" the shout escaped her throat and with it some of the tension pressing on her chest vanished, too.

Roughly she ran her hands over her eyes. She knew she mustn't let her situation cloud her mind again; she needed every piece of sanity to keep her head calm while still stress and the side effects of the antidote where affecting her. Slowly she lowered her hands and allowed her eyes to get used to this office again. She looked at the dirty ceiling and its huge lamp that could only be switched on from the outside. Her voice made a sound like a dry laughter. Within her search she had really found a little key that was labeled with _'Emergency-key – Office'_. Just this silly injection filled with red liquid remained a wish. She blinked; the moon that was barely bright enough to illuminate the office had really managed it to dazzle her. Its beams got reflected by something glassy on top of the cupboard she had seen Mitsuhiko destroy in her hallucination.

She blinked again, this time out of confusion. Thunderstruck she sat up and turned around, her eyes glued to the glassy thing. It was an injection; its needle covered with a plastic top and within its fragile body a reddish liquid laid motionlessly. Alice's eyes widened. This had to be the antidote! Of that she was sure while she ran over to the cupboard and stretched up onto her tiptoes, then she jumped; she was too small. She clenched her teeth, if one thing wouldn't stop her than it would be her lack of size; a problem she was used to ever since she could think. She rushed over to the desk and pulled away Kato's huge leather chair and positioned it next to the cupboard. Afterwards she grabbed a pile of books and built them up onto the chair.

The girl started to climb. She managed it to reach the top of her self-made ladder and stretched onto her tiptoes again. She couldn't build this mountain any higher, the tower of books already shivered malignly, but she remained too small. With a last stretch her fingertips could touch the slippery surface of the injection but she couldn't grab it. She stretched again and once again she felt the glass, slowly her tries to reach it were pushing it further away. "No! Please don't" she gasped while she saw the antidote sliding away into a distance she could never gap.

Ignoring her shaky ladder she stretched up fully and jumped until the felt her hand clenching around the fragile glass-body. When she reached the earth again the books finally gave it, her tower collapsed and she lost her balance. Cupping the injection as good as she could with her hands she hit the floor aback and gasped when the power of her fall pressed the air out of her lungs. Her whole body arched and she lost grab off the small thing in her hand. Without wasting any time she rolled over onto her front side and scanned the dark floor with her eyes. The injection! Where was the injection?! It could impossible have slide this far away from her.

She got up onto her knees. Feeling around for something glassy; looking around for something transparent. Both turned out to be difficult since her hands were shaking heavily and her gaze slowly blurred beyond tears of desperation entering her eyes. In the end it where her ears that told her where she'd find her precious treasure. A light cracking sound, the sound of two pieces of glass getting pushed into each other told her that she had to turn around. Somehow the injection had made its way down to her feet where it had burst while falling to the ground and while crawling around on the floor her feet had touched its fragments.

She shook her head in disbelieve and reached for the transparent pieces covered in a red liquid that slowly vanished inside of the laminate. "Please, no" she mumbled and tried to stop the invaluable antidote from vanishing inside of the floor. "Please please no!" Her whole effort had been useless; she'd managed it to destroy everything with a single clumsy move. Her hands clenched to fists around the sharp glass-fragments; the pain spreading in her hands overshadowing just a part of what she felt crushing onto her.

Big tears dropped down onto the floor while the girl tensed her body against the shivering that rocked it. What should she do now? How should she rescue Shinichi when she'd just lost the only thing on the earth that could cure him? Sure Kato could reproduce it, but how long would that take? And what if it would be too late?! Wasn't there a deadline just like there had been one for her?! When her hands finally couldn't stand the sharp pain she opened her grab and looked down on the last remnants of the antidote slowly mixing up with her own blood and tears. She made a choked sound while this mixture draining away into the floor, seemingly taking the last pieces of her shattered sanity with it.

Alice felt her body getting up onto its legs. It could be this easy; antidote – blood… who cares? More rocking forward than walking she made her way up to Kato's desk. Within her search she'd discovered some empty injections within it. She opened the drawer; the empty expression on her face turning into hatred; anger and madness twitching her mouth and squeezing her gaze. She knew she mustn't give up; not now and not like that. Furiously her hands found the glassy injections and grabbed them. It could be this easy. She pulled the plastic cover off and raised the sharp needle high above her head while she pulled her sleeve away with her mouth. "Antidote – blood… who cares?" she mumbled with the cloth between her teeth, driving the glass-needle deep into her arm.

* * *

-Mitsuhiko-

"Ayumi-chan!" Mitsuhiko gasped, for some reason he had really got worried when she'd vanished, but now she was back. All clam she looked at them from the other side of the corridor and smiled. Was it only his imagination or had he barely ever seen the girl looking this peaceful?

"We have to leave!" he heard Genta call over to the girl. Mitsuhiko threw a short glance at Ai and this Kato. What did they mean when they say that the cannibal killed someone? They couldn't talk about Alice, could they? Otherwise they'd used her name and also she'd already been cured… so why were they that worried? "Hoi Ayumi! Did you hear me?!" Genta shouted again and when Mitsuhiko looked up he saw the girl still standing there; motionless looking at them. "G…Genta" Ai mumbled, surprising Mitsuhiko with a very low and insecure tone in her voice. "What's wrong?!" the boy shouted once again, ignoring Ai fully.

"Follow me." It had been Ayumi who spoke now and she caught everyone's look while she slowly raised her hand to wave them over. "Ayumi, wait!" Ai called, sounding very nervous. Ayumi ignored her; she simply turned around and walked out of their sight around a corner some feet ahead. "Hoi!" Genta rushed after her and Mitsuhiko made a move like following him when Ai's sudden shriek stopped him "NO! Genta wait!"

Ai made a step ahead, her look telling Mitsuhiko she was about to hold Genta back, though she knew it would be hopeless; the boy was too strong and too big for her to stop him if he wanted to follow Ayumi. "Don't!" a big hand appeared and pulled Ai back on her shoulder. Angrily Mitsuhiko recognized Kato roughly stopping her "what?" he snapped to protect her but Kato instantly replied "it's a trap, we need to get out of here; now!"

"I know it's a trap! That's why we need to stop Genta" Ai objected shrilly, what made Mitsuhiko feel more and more uneasy; what made Ai, who usually was all calm, this nervous? What could scare her like that?!

"D… don't tell me the antidote failed!" he suddenly gasped, a light going warm in his mind. The uncomfortable looks of Kato and Ai told him he'd been right. "I don't know if she somehow managed to escape or if her supporters are acting on their own, we only know that your little friends are lost. I'll get you out of here now! Don't walk too far away from me; everyone I lose sight of won't be trusted anymore."

"What?! NO! You can impossibly do that and leave them back!" Ai shouted and Mitsuhiko saw her struggling against Kato's grip on her shoulder. The man only increased his hold and shouted back "don't you get what's happening here?! This could become just a massacre as it has been half a year ago! I need to get you two out of my way and then return in here with more back-up."

"No" it had been the desperation within her voice that made Mitsuhiko gulp "Hai… Ai-san, he is right" he mumbled, avoiding her look, but he knew she was staring at him in disbelieve. "I… I don't know what happened to Alice or Conan…neither with Ayumi and Genta, but the last time we had to deal with cannibals only the police could cure a group of them, while we could only run away… It's hard to say but Kato is right. We need to escape and let professionals handle the situation."

Since no one replied anything the three of them slowly walked away from the corner Ayumi and Genta had vanished behind; Mitsuhiko still couldn't tell what exactly was going on, but he knew Kato was right. Who he'd lost sight of couldn't be trusted at the moment.

* * *

-Genta-

The boy rushed after Ayumi. He felt all eased when he'd seen her; ever since she'd vanished he couldn't stop worrying and now she was there and something about her secure look told him she must know a way out of this hospital. No matter how interesting it had been, now he only wanted to go home.

Gasping Genta reached another corner. He hadn't seen Ayumi in some time now. "Ayumi-chan!" he called into the depth of the hospital that made his voice echo. "Where did you go?!" he called. His question didn't remain unanswered, with a low squeaking sound a door to his right opened. "What are you doing in there?" he asked doubtfully; did she really just ask him away to show him an interesting room?

Genta opened the door fully and stepped into the small room. It was some sort of patient's room; there were a bed, a TV, some chairs and a table. The boy walked further inside of the room and looked around for something worth all her secretiveness, when he suddenly recognized he hadn't seen her ever since she'd vanished around the corner.

"A…Ayumi-chan?" for the first time a trace of insecurity had appeared in his tone. "Hai" a gentle voice replied from behind Genta and made him turn around. Ayumi was standing behind the door, which she now pushed shut with a slight move of her hand. "I knew you'd follow me" she said happily and walked over to him, her eyes fixing him. "I knew Haibara and Tsuburaya would stay with this horrible doctor, but you followed me, desu ne Genta-kun?"

Genta blinked, her tone had made him feel all proud; the way how she only used his first name, too… but now that he thought about it, it appeared weird to him. Ayumi ignored his silence, she just snickered as she continued "I mean, he told me, but I knew it. Se-ri-ous-ly."

With the last word she'd stepped all close to him what cause the boy to blush heavily. "Who… told you?" he asked fast; knowing nothing else to say. The smile on Ayumi's face, which he could see very closely, widened and some new expression entered her eyes. "He! He! HE!" she kept repeating it like a spell and slowly Genta's feed made a light step backwards; he'd never seen Ayumi this… upbeat. "I'm afraid he can't be here when you're joining us, but be sure he'll welcome you happily."

The door to the corridor swung open and Genta saw a thin man entering the room; he wore a doctor's overall with a smiley-face button pinned to its collar. _'Hi, my name is:….. Please help me learning.' _The name was covered with a dark liquid, so Genta couldn't read it. Now that Genta looked some closer at him, he saw that the man's clothes were all covered with this liquid. "Blood!" he gasped while the man closed the door again and walked up to Genta and Ayumi.

Genta backed off; who the hell was that?! He could dimly remember Kato saying something about a trainee, but what happened to him?! "Him?" the man asked with a young voice. Genta saw he'd kneeled down to Ayumi to talk to her on eye-level. "Uhu, just make sure he isn't moving too much; I'll do the rest."

"Wh…What rest?! Ayumi who's that man?!" he stuttered while the trainee approached; cornering the boy. "One of us, he's just not really important; only infected over degrees of separation. Not like me, you see" she smiled proudly. "I've directly been infected; that's why I should be the one to bite you; it will raise your value if you want."

By the time Ayumi had stopped talking the trainee had grabbed Genta and stopped him from moving. Actually Genta had thought he'd be able to fight the man down (since he was really thin) but to the boy's very surprise this trainee was strong; really really strong. So everything Genta could do was watching Ayumi approaching and stuttering and asking unanswered questions until the girl had brought her mouth to his flesh.

* * *

_Please leave a review to help me improve :}_


	15. Unexpected happenings

**_[Act 15] - ||Unexpected happenings||_**

-Ai-

Ai, Mitsuhiko and Kato were rushing down the corridors, back to a fire door that, according to Kato, led into a stairwell where they would be able to reach the ground floor at once. Ai suppressed the feelings that 'fire door' and 'exit' raised inside of her memory and simply focused on making her feet keep running. She knew she couldn't stop; not even for a second or she wouldn't be able to run again. They were leaving everyone back; Shinichi and Lilly, Ayumi and Genta and also this doctor and nurse and the trainee. All these people that were either dead or suffering from a disease; threating their own and stranger's lives.

Breathing audible the three of them reached the main corridor close to Kato's office. Ai shuddered while thinking about how close Alice could possibly be to them. "This one" Kato pointed his weapon at a heavy glass door and while he reached for the handle Ai urgently begged it would simply open up.

Kato pushed the handle down, then he pulled against it and the door... swung open. Ai nearly gasped in release. It would work; this time they could escape and get the people the help they needed. "In there and then hurry up" Kato ordered, waiting for them to go ahead so he could make sure no one was following. His tone told Ai he felt the same urge to simply help the people they were leaving back.

"Wait!" a shout made Ai, Mitsuhiko and even Kato wince. It had been female, some feet away maybe and breathily like it was approaching. "In there, NOW!" Kato shouted who had slightly faster than Ai understood whose voice it had been. He pushed the kids into the stairwell and pulled the glass door shut, just moments before the owner of the voice appeared behind the thick glass.

"Out of there!" Alice shouted and grabbed the handle of the door from the outside "hurry up!" Her voice was begging while she tried to push the handle down; Kato held against it however. "Get lost cannibal!" he shouted. To Ai's very surprise she fast pressed her finger against her lips "shhht! Shut up or they'll hear you under guarantee!"

"Who?" Ai mumbled, but Kato waved his hand to signalize her to shut up. "Cannibal for the last time: If you don't want me to shoot your head, you better get lost. I'll return later for ya."

Alice's look darkened "and for your last time: I'm no cannibal! I haven't been in six month, but you just ran into a cannibal's trap and if you don't keep your voice lower you will tell them you did so in addition!"

Ai glanced at this girl through the protecting glass; she looked tired and a trace of madness had entered her look; more than Ai had ever seen with her. Also she could spot that she had somehow spilled water on the sleeves of Conan's old suit and her hands where bloodstained… whose blood was that?

"Stop that finally" Ai mumbled. She ran her hand over her eyes; she felt dizzy from all these doubts, all these memories that were flashing back "please, just stop this."

"I can't" Ai looked up; she felt surprise the cannibal had heard her through the thick door, but what she saw on the corridor was doubtlessly her friend. Battered, scared, but also worried "I can't because if I give up you'll die. I need to try." Alice smiled a sad smile and made a step backwards. "If you don't trust me, I can't change it. But you need to get out of there."

While speaking she kept walking backwards, still looking at the three of them behind the door. "A… Ai-san?" she heard Mitsuhiko's low voice and she didn't need to look at him to know what he meant "I… I don't know either if we can believe her…"

"BELIEVE HER?!" Kato shouted at Ai. "She's tricking you! She's a goddamn, bloodstained, hungry cannibal-monster, so NO we cannot trust her." Ai hesitated "but…"

"Ai-san?…!" Mitsuhiko's voice had grown louder. "What?" she turned around to him, hoping he maybe had a reason why they could trust her… shocked Ai recognized he really had a reason. Ai widened her eyes and felt her heart painfully stopping for a moment before it started to pound twice as fast as before. Standing on the stairs that led down to the ground floor a woman stood and waited. It was obvious that this must be the nurse that had been infected.

Though her skin hadn't lost any color she looked at them so obviously hungry that Ai wondered why she hadn't already killed them; since she seemed to wait there for some time now. Kato raised his weapon. "No!" Ai shouted, but it was too late, Kato had already shot two times. Both bullets hit the nurse's body; one her shoulder one her knee. She looked slightly surprised down on her body, then at Kato and growled.

* * *

-Mitsuhiko-

A sound like a low breathing made Mitsuhiko look around. His body froze when he spotted the woman behind them, waiting for someone to recognize her presence. He looked at Ai and Kato again, hoping the woman in the nurse's dress hadn't recognized him looking at her. He tried to tell Ai and this Kato what was waiting there but they weren't listening, they were lost in the discussion about Alice.

He tried again. He also wasn't sure if they could believe Alice or not, but he knew she'd been right, the stairwell had been a trap and she had tried to warn them. "Ai-san?...!" he mumbled. Why didn't the cannibal-nurse attack them? What was she waiting for?

"What?" finally Ai listened to him and turned around; the expression that instantly entered her face told Mitsuhiko she shared his fear; this woman was indeed a cannibal.

Also Kato glared at the woman behind them and then he raised his weapon. Mitsuhiko's eyes widened; hadn't he told them a cannibal was immortal?! What did he want to achieve by shooting her? Seemingly unaware of this the man simply shot his weapon and when Mitsuhiko turned around to see the reaction of the cannibal he saw he'd been right. She barely reacted at all, she just growled, annoyed about Kato's try.

"Do you know how long I waited here?! And now you shoot me and think I'd give up that easy? Tsk" she bended forward and her eyes focused on a position slightly behind Mitsuhiko. Those next seconds were passing very slowly to his mind. The woman made a quick move forward, Mitsuhiko understood she was aiming for the one she thought to be the easiest aim; Ai… and he realized she was too shocked to react at all.

With all power he could bring up he started to run towards the nurse and bang his shoulder fast into her. "Mitsuhiko!" Ai's scream was everything he was really aware of, while he and the cannibal both hit the floor. He tried to make out where he was and where the others where, but he could only see stars flashing in front of his eyes while he heard something close to him standing up. "Annoying brat" a deep female voice growled and then Mitsuhiko felt a pressure appearing at his neck; he was lifted up from the floor.

Slowly his eyes were able to send the needed information to his brain again, though he wished they wouldn't. He looked at the face of a young woman which had raised him up to her eyelevel. Her eyes looked coldly at him and though Mitsuhiko felt those eyes once had been bright and friendly they'd now lost every trace of human warmth. "A volunteer, fine with me. So you'll be my number 1."

"Mitsuhiko, NO!" Ai screamed again and the part of Mitsuhiko's heart that wasn't paralyzed with fear buzzed about how much she worried about him. "Filthy monster, you always pick the kids first, don't ya?" Mitsuhiko heard a voice mumbled, that sounded less nice in his ears. He could tell that Kato raised his weapon again from the corner of his eye, but the cannibal in front of him smiled dismissively. "Listen doctor, you can waste your whole ammo with me, just watching how one after the other will enter my body and leave me unimpressed, or you wait there like a good doctor until it's your turn joining us."

Mitsuhiko saw the look of the doctor darken, "I've never heard a cannibal talk before… systematically infecting others… this version of the disease is truly interesting" he mumbled, neither lowering his weapon nor shooting. Mitsuhiko just wished he'd do anything to get him away from this thing and it's oddly sharp teeth when a squeaking sound made the people within the stairwell including the cannibal wince and look at the glass door that slowly opened while a child entered it.

"Let go of him" a calm voice said. "A…lice?" he mumbled as much as the grip on his neck allowed him. "You…" the nurse replied and to Mitsuhiko's surprise it really sounded irritated. "Who do you think you are to boss me around?" the nurse asked, an insecure smile enterring her face and curling her lips. "You know who I am and I bet you'd love to bring me somewhere, am I wrong?"

Mitsuhiko glanced at Alice, her face unnaturally calm, nearly emotionless – and back at the cannibal that obviously tried to make a decision. "You'd let me bring you to him?" it asked doubtfully, but before Alice could answer Kato interrupted "what the hell are you talking about?!" he pointed his weapon this time at Alice's head. "WAIT!" the cannibal shouted and lowered Mitsuhiko slightly.

"Don't kill her! He'd go mad if you do and certainly he'll take his anger out on me!"

"He?" Kato mumbled all confused "which _'he'_?"

"He" the cannibal simply replied, nearly hissed the word "fine! You come with me girl and I spare those people… he won't be too pleased about that, too, but he'll still be happy to get you."

Mitsuhiko, still dangling in the air, glanced at Alice; she nodded. He knitted his eyebrows; he wasn't sure what was going on here, but it sounded a lot like Alice was about to sacrifice herself for him and that wasn't what he wanted; cannibal or not she was his friend. "Alice, no… I" he began and then many things happened in a short period of time.

Alice tried to interrupt him and made a step towards him and the nurse, Kato grabbed Alice's arm to prevent her from walking away and pressed his weapon into her side. Alice gasped in pain and went to her knees, likely the part of her arm Kato had touched was injured and the nurse raised Mitsuhiko up to her face again. Somehow she must have thought Kato had shot Alice and shouted "I told you not to hurt her! You'll regret this!"

A pain shot into Mitsuhiko's neck and spread into his whole body before a big man suddenly brought his shoulder into the cannibal's side and the three of them went to the floor.

* * *

-Alice-

"Follow me!" Alice called over her shoulder and rushed through the glass door, leaving the cannibal back. Kato had managed it to use the rage of the infected nurse to hit her and make her fall down the stairs while he'd caught Mitsuhiko. Alice knew this wouldn't give them too much time, but maybe enough to bring some space between their group and this cannibal. She rushed around a corner, nearly stumbling but not losing any speed. Some short moments later they'd reached Kato's office. "In there!" she shouted and gladly she recognized Ai and Kato doing as she told them; maybe the past happenings had made them trust her, maybe they were just too shocked to think about this properly, but at least they were safe… for the moment.

As soon as everyone had vanished inside of the office she turned around and locked the door behind her with the emergency-key she'd found earlier. She breathed in and out, then she turned around to look at her friends… and Kato. Kato was standing in the middle of his office looking at what it had become. Just by now Alice recognized that she hadn't just messed it up by throwing everything down on the floor while searching, she'd also accidentally let Kato's mice escape and flooded everything with the water from the heater she'd damaged to free herself. "Ups" she mumbled and walked over to the pitch where Ai had bended over Mitsuhiko. The boy was breathing audible; his right hand was clenched to a fist while his left one covered his neck that was bleeding seriously.

"Mitsuhiko-kun?" Ai asked lowly while her blue eyes were running over the boy's shaking body. "C… can you hear me?" surprised Alice recognized that Ai's eyes were filled with tears. "He's… infected. Ai we can leave him here, ok? We'll help him later, together with the others… ok?" Alice had kept her voice low and gentle though she felt choked and nervous. On the one hand she couldn't say how sorry she felt for the pain he was going through, but on the other hand she knew that, if they wouldn't hurry up and get out of this room, they'd have to deal with another cannibal.

"Who said you're giving orders here? I'm still not sure if you're a cannibal… this could all be a trick of you" Kato snapped.

"A trick?!" Alice gasped, desperation entering her mind; she still didn't knew how to make Ai and Kato understand what was really going on. "Don't be silly" Ai's shaky voice replied while she hopped down from the pitch. "If she really wanted us to get infected she'd simply leave us there with this nurse… she tried to rescue us and that means she isn't one of them."

For the first time that had felt like ages the girls looked at each other and though none of them could smile it still had something soothing. "So… Edogawa-kun, really…?" Ai began and Alice nodded slowly, her stomach tensing about this issue. "I can't believe it" Ai mumbled and glanced back at Mitsuhiko.

"Ok… let's say we trust her… we still need to escape! We need to inform the police so they can put the hospital under quarantine… this should give me enough time to produces some new antidote. I mean if you haven't been a cannibal before it would explain why your blood hasn't changed at all… so my antidote works and I just have one injection full of it here…"

"Uhm… no, you don't" Alice mumbled, slowly she'd slid her hand into her pocket where it grabbed the glassy body of the injection "I… I already have it here."

She showed it to him and Ai, she felt uncomfortable lying to them, but it wasn't time to explain this now; it would only make Kato distrust her again. "Looks odd… my antidote is really this bright? I thought its red is some darker…" Kato mumbled confused and Alice fast dropped it back into her pocket. "Who cares about color?!" Ai shrieked and Alice saw some kind on hope on her face that had this trace of desperation in it which made it look uncomforting. "If we have the antidote and Alice never had been a cannibal it could work! We can cure Mitsuhiko!"

"Ai… we can't" Alice mumbled, again she avoided looking at her friend… this wouldn't be easy to say. "We just have this one… we need to spare it for Conan."

Alice nearly felt Ai widening her eyes "wha… why?! Sure I want to heal Edogawa, too. But what makes him more important than Mitsuhiko?!" Alice looked at her again, the expression in her friend's eyes were the same she knew from herself. Ai wasn't only worried about a child… she was worried about someone who meant a lot more than this to her. "He is the one who was infected first… he infected everyone else. You remember cannibals listening to the one that infected them? It seems even more with this new version of the disease… That's because they're connected. In summary: If we cure Conan the others are cured, too."

"What? How do you come up with such information?" Ai asked, still not agreeing with what she just heard. "She read my papers" Kato mumbled. He'd walked over to his desk to tidy it up and had recognized his notes about the new disease being the only papers that weren't messed up. He was right, Alice had really hesitated a moment to go through them. "And she's right… it'd be the fastest way to cure everyone" he said, now looking at them.

Alice smiled, hoping Ai would understand that when Kato added "it's also the silliest way." Alice turned around to him "what?!"

"You're right, the infected cannibals listen to the one that infected everyone else; the leading-cannibal if you want. That also means they are going to _protect_ him, no matter what it costs. So if you want to inject him with the antidote you first have to defeat all the other cannibals."

"It's our only hope." Alice said and knew Ai and Kato needed an explanation; she's already thought about this. "All in all we have 6 infected. Less Conan, who is our aim and Mitsuhiko who we'll leave here, leaves 4 cannibals in our way. This hospital has 2 exits; the main one and the emergency exit. Conan will 100% have those exits protected… likely with his two biggest cannibals. So we can subtract Ito and Sekai as guards. That leaves Ayumi and Genta… we need to deal with them and should be fine."

Kato and Ai glared at her. "How can you be sure you're right? Maybe he's forgotten about guarding the exits?" Kato replied but Alice shook her head. "You don't know him; he doesn't simply _forget_ anything… Be sure that he's already studied the floor plan… likely he also knows who you are. He has a plan on what will happen next and at least two what he's going to do if his first plan fails."

"Are we talking about the same 7-year old boy?" Kato asked dismissively. "You shouldn't underestimate him." Alice replied, how could she make Kato understand who they were up against? She was sure he would if she could only tell him they were 17 in real, but she knew she couldn't. "And how do you know so much about him? You also talked to the infected nurse like you were sure he would want you."

"I'm…" she hesitated before she continued "I'm different from you… thanks to your antidote I can't be infected anymore. That makes me a threat to his plan, so he'll do what he can to eliminate me."

"I always hear you talking about a plan. What plan?" Kato still seemed up to make everything Alice said sound unbelievable, but when she opened her mouth a moaning sound made everyone wince.

"He's waking up, we need to go" she hissed with a short glare at Mitsuhiko who had just moved; their time was running up. "But…!" Ai tried but Alice shook her head before her friend could finish her sentence "we won't leave him like that. We'll help him, but only if we stay alive and sane. Let's go."

With her last words she turned around and opened the door to the corridor, Ai and Kato slowly moved to follow her, though both only left reluctantly. As soon as they'd left the room Alice closed the door and locked it. Before she'd even removed the key from its hole they could hear the sound of fast steps from inside the room. "Fast now" she mumbled, putting the key away again and the three of them turned around just when a powerful something hit the office door.

"You really stole my key" Kato mumbled while they left the office behind. "I borrowed it" she corrected.

* * *

_Please leave a review to help me improve :}_


	16. Plans and Plots

**_[Act 16] - ||Plans and Plots||_**

-Conan-

The cannibal leaned back against the backrest of the leather chair. In front of him floor plans and other papers were piled on top of the mahogany desk. He switched the lamp next to the papers off and massaged his eyes. They slowly stopped working the way they used to, one of the little disadvantages of being a cannibal. He knew the eyes of his supporters had stopped working properly right away, his had done their job until yesterday; not that he needed them anyways. His sense of smell and hearing had increased more than he had known to be possible, what left his eyes unnecessary, except the fact that reading turned out to become more and more difficult.

He sighed and glanced at the floor plan, or what he could make out of it. He already knew exactly where what was in this hospital. Both exits where guarded and traps where set up. If everything would run smoothly Ayumi would lure Genta away; she and this trainee would help him. Ai and Kato wouldn't fall for it, of that he'd been sure. So he'd made Sekai leave the fire door and wait for them in the stairwell above. He hadn't been all sure whether Mitsuhiko would follow Genta or Ai, he just knew he wouldn't cause any problems.

But there was something else he knew… it wouldn't run smooth. Not as long as she was running around.

"C…Conan-kun?" He kept his eyes closed. He knew it was Ayumi who entered the office of the hospital-management; the room he'd chosen to work as their headquarters for this night; he recognized her voice and she was the only one of his supporters calling him by his name. _'He'_ was what the others used; he accepted it. Ayumi didn't continue to speak so he finally opened his eyes. He could still make out a blurry room and a black-haired girl with a hair band. "Yes Ayumi?" he asked slightly annoyed. "I have some good and some bad news" she replied, pretending happy. He raised his eyebrows to signalize her he wasn't in the mood for playing a game.

"Genta joined us, this trainee and I had no problems getting…"

"And the bad news" he interrupted her to cut her story short "Sekai… she said she 'found herself confronted with unexpected problems'… for the moment we can't tell where Ai, Mitsuhiko and this doctor are... but she said she's pretty sure she could infect Mitsuhiko!"

"'Unexpected problems means…" Ayumi nodded "yeah, Alice showed up. Like you said, she helped the others escape."

He crossed his arms in front of his chest and smiled. "You already have a plan, right?" she asked. He didn't need to see her face to know it looked eased. "No. For the moment we can't tell where they are."

"But… why are you smiling then?!"

"Because this is very interesting."

"Interesting?!" she asked breathily, like she couldn't believe he really had fun. "Yes, very. You see Alice and I know each other since forever… But tonight is the first time we face each other as enemies. And even though I feel sorry about that I can't wait to see what she'll do next."

"And what will _we_ do next?" a trace of anger entered her voice. "_We_ won't do a thing. _You_ however will take Genta and this trainee and make up for Sekai's mistake. Try to find Mitsuhiko and explain him everything. Then go and search for this doctor and Ai… they aren't to be underestimated, but if you separate them, it shouldn't be too difficult to infect them."

The blurry Ayumi glared at him, arms akimbo. Different from the others she wasn't blindly following his orders. In a way it was a nice relief, but it also caused him a lot of trouble. "And what about _her _then? What if she's getting in the way again?"

"Alice can't be infected… this doctor destroyed every way for us to help her… he's going to regret that" he felt his look darken. Conan still couldn't get used to the thought that they'd lost Alice… he would definitely make Kato pay for that.

"So? What should happen to her?" Ayumi had walked over to his chair without him recognizing and looked at him with a mixture of confusion and provocation. He opened his mouth but Ayumi interrupted him; something barely anyone in this hospital would dare. "We can't let her escape. She'd cause a panic by informing the police… this would only get the change unnecessarily difficult."

Conan got up from his chair "don't you think I know that?" he asked calm, giving his voice a threatening tone. "Wanna hear what I think?" Ayumi asked rhetorically, ignoring any possible fear. "I think you perfectly well know what we have to do; you just don't want to say it out loud, because that would mean the end for your little pet."

"Pet?" he repeated, raising an eyebrow.

"It's your plan so I don't need to tell you that some sacrifices need to be accepted" she said and walked around him, maybe just to bring some space between the two of them. "Right" he replied, following her moves with his eyes until she left his sight. "You don't have to say it" she mumbled from right behind, before he could turn around she snuggled herself close to his body from behind "just let me take care of her. It'll run smooth and painless and you don't get your hands dirty."

"Do you really hate her that much that you want to kill her yourself, or is it something different?" he asked, ignoring her hug. "Are you scared of her? That scared that you want her to vanish as soon as possible?"

He felt her letting go and when he turned around her face told him he'd been right. "You're different when she's around. I don't want her to make you change your opinion." Guilt lay in her voice but also bitterness. "She couldn't" he replied, maybe a little too fast since Ayumi peered at him in reply. "You don't even want to let anyone kill her" she replied, still worried. "I never said, I wouldn't!" he objected, growing angrier and angrier about Ayumi's still doubtful look.

Annoyed he turned away from her, over to the door. "Where are you going?" Ayumi called after him. He opened the door and turned around to her, a malign expression in his eyes. "Getting me something to eat."

"Like what? It's not like we can simply go to get us something at an Italian restaurant" Ayumi tilted her head and he smiled while he turned around to leave "Not Italian, I'm more in the mood for something English." A beam entered Ayumi's face.

"So you're ok with me doing it simple and clean?" she asked hoping.

"No. I'll do this myself; not that simple and clean however."

He closed the door behind him and left Ayumi back in the darkness; not recognizing her worried expression giving way to an evil smile "I favor cruel and bloody anyways; especially concerning our little English pie."

* * *

-Kato-

They kept running. They knew this boy, Mitsuhiko, would sooner or later break down the door to Kato's office and maybe hunt after them. The problem was that they couldn't be sure Sekai wasn't doing the same. Kato clenched his teeth; he still couldn't fully understand why he was doing what this bow-girl told him to. Ok, fine, she was no cannibal; but her best friends were and what did she know anyways?! This was the diseases Kato studied since years; he studied it longer than this girl even walked around in this world, so why did he keep running?

"Where are we running to?" he finally called breathily. "I don't know… away I guess" she replied. His eyes widened in anger "Are you kiddin' me girl?! Don't you get what we're up against?!"

Instantly she stopped and Ai and Kato stopped to. She turned around to him with a serious look "I perfectly well know _who_ we are up against. But until he finds me I need to find a place for you two to hide."

Kato blinked… to his ears this sounded a lot like the little girl tried to get him out of the way to protect him. "What?!" Ai wondered "what are you planning to do?!"

"I need to talk to him" Alice replied, her tone was a lot more pleasant when she talked to the blond, compared to when she talked to Kato. "Talk?!" Ai gasped "the last time you talked he pushed you down the stairs, or not?!"

"Yeah… but that was just because I barely had time. I'm sure if he'd listen to me just for some longer I can convince him to take the antidote… we're talking about Conan at least! He's a good person."

"He _was_, idiot." Kato interrupted the girls chatter. "You still don't get a thing! The cannibal disease ATTACKS-THE-BRAIN! It switches off any kind of pain, that's why it was famous with some clans in Africa. It helped them to increase their power. Too late they recognized that sympathy is just the ability to feel the pain of other humans. Switching off the pain means switching off any kind of sympathy. This lead to cannibalism, also the strength is just a result of not feeling anything. If you don't feel that breaking something or hurting someone hurts you, too, you don't stop."

"But that would still lead to a high level of self-destruction" Ai mumbled and gave Kato again the feeling she understood a thing or two about medicine. "It does… For example if you kick against a wall you feel your foot getting hurt and you stop; that's it. If a cannibals kicks a wall he just kicks it as hard as it needs to. It doesn't feel anything that'd stop it, though it maybe just crushed its foot."

"Yeah, I know… but when I've suffered from this illness Conan could still convince me to take the antidote" Alice objected.

"What?" Kato blinked. He couldn't believe what he'd just heard. "Y… you mean this metaphorically, don't you?"

"Meta… how could I mean it metaphorically?"

"You can't really tell me he simply talked to you and you allowed him to administer you the antidote."

"But he did. Two times to be exact. The first time the antidote just failed."

Kato kneeled down to the girl and grabbed her shoulder. He scanned her face; this couldn't be true! "What?! H…how?! What threat did he use? How did he trick you to do something like that?!"

"He didn't needed to threaten or trick me! The first time we had a deal… the second time he just… convinced me it'd be right. So I eat the antidote myself, he didn't administer anything to me… Why do you sound this surprised?"

"Never" he mumbled, more to himself than to the girl. "Never before I've heard of a cannibal taking the antidote voluntarily… The cannibals we healed always had to be knocked out or administered the antidote forcefully. But never on their own… Maybe we found the weak spot about the 2.0 version…"

A silence filled the corridor in which Kato tried to sort the information he'd just gotten. "I told you! The disease that changed in me is different. Ai said it spares parts of the nerve system. That's why cannibals are able to talk and to make plans and to be convinced."

The voice of the girl barely reached his ears, how could everything he knew just be this wrong?! What the hell had happened to the disease while infecting the girl?! Slowly, because he recognized he hadn't done something for too long, he nodded and stood up again. He saw the girl smiling happily. "Ok, let's go now. You need to hide… I think it'd be better to talk to Conan alone."

"He _has_ changed." Kato heard his own voice and saw the bow-girl's move and smile freezing. "I don't know why the cannibal-you took the antidote, but a fact is that 99,9% of the cannibals don't take the antidote. You may remember your friend and think he's still there, because this thing wears his surface and uses his voice, but he's gone. You're up to meet a monster with nothing more than the hope to convince it to take something that's going to defeat it. Want to know what I know about cannibals? I don't believe them to be only carnivore animals… I saw them and studied them. They enjoy killing people, yes, but especially people that were important to them once. Dunno why. Maybe the disease inside of them wants to erase every connection to their old lives, or maybe they just enjoy the way how their friends and beloved scream… In a way this makes them more human, but it also tells me one thing: If he finds you, his wish will be to kill you. Now tell me, can you deal with that?"

The girl didn't reply. She just stood there and looked at something Kato couldn't see. "I will deal with it" Kato heard her mumble. "Because he did, too. No matter what it is that tries to take him away from him I will face it and defeat it." She raised her head and their eyes met; something belligerent was glooming in her eyes. "That goes for you, too. Either you are helping me or you are trying to stop me. And then I'll have to defeat you first."

For a moment they looked at each other, waiting for the other one to give in. Finally Kato smiled. "My, girl. If I wouldn't know it better I'd believe you are the real cannibal here. Fine, it's your death and I won't stop you dying it the way you want to."

"Thanks. Let's go now, Mitsuhiko could find us every minute."

"Or my trainee"

"Trai…what?!" Alice glared at him.

"Trainee. We aren't sure if he's infected or already dead, but hey. Let's face it. We haven't been too lucky tonight, so likely he waits for us just around the next corner."

Happily he recognized the girl rubbing her head annoyed about him. "If I wouldn't know it better I'd think I'm a cannibal, too. My god I wish I was; all those neat horrible things I could do to you."

And the three of them continued their walk through the hospital.

* * *

-Mitsuhiko-

"That's basically the plan. You see?"

Mitsuhiko nodded and allowed Ayumi to take care of the wound at his neck. He saw. This bite had been necessary to save him from a fate worth than being a cannibal. He turned his head away from the girl so she could fix the patch. He didn't like how his body felt, or better how it didn't feel. Every move he took, everything he touch… it seemed like his skin barely recognized his surroundings. Like he'd been covered with some thick piece of cuff that swallowed most of what was there to be felt.

"So if we're immortal, why are you vetting my wound?" he asked as soon as she'd taken a step back. "Our bodies don't heal, since they don't need to. Badly this means wounds don't stop bleeding; it's just to keep you from dripping this everywhere you go."

"I see." Mitsuhiko had woken up in Kato's office, left alone in a body he didn't understood and he knew who he'd to blame for this. _"Bankroft! She told Ai to go."_

"Can we go now?" a deeper voice asked; Genta waited at the door and Mitsuhiko had to admit whatever they'd become had also its advantages. He'd never seen his friend this calm before, one could easily believe him to be thinking. "Where?" he replied and warily touched his covered neck. "We need to find this doctor and Haibara" Genta answered, still leaning at the door; was this really the rashly boy he once knew?

"Hai…bara" he mumbled. This name had driven a needle into his stomach; it was a rare feeling cutting through numb flesh. "Yeah, he wants us to help them, too. He said it should be easy by separating 'em." Genta said it like he didn't fully believe this, though he didn't dare to couch it. "We can help them?!" he asked, sitting up.

The thought that this distance between Ai and him didn't need to last, increased the feeling of pain; he truly enjoyed this feeling no matter how it hurt him, it simply was everything that disturbed the numbness his friends seemed to have gotten used to. "Yeah" Ayumi smiled, it was sobering to recognize how little this smile touched him.

"They don't understand what we want to do, so we maybe have to force them, but in the end it will be the best for them." The three cannibals in the dark treating roomed nodded agreeing; of this they were sure. "What about Bankroft?"

Mitsuhiko was the first who spoke again. A sound ahead told him Genta had turned away; an information his eyes couldn't give him anymore. "She's lost. Conan-kun said the antidote destroyed our chances to rescue her, so he said he'll… take care of her."

"I see" Mitsuhiko mumbled again; reluctantly. How he had enjoyed it to 'take care of her' himself. This girl had hijacked Ai; had lured her away from him and the salvation he brought. But also he knew this would remain a dream. If '_he'_ decided to do it, he would do it; no one would dare to argue at this point… well Ayumi maybe. In a way she was the only one who used his name and the only one arguing with him… sometimes.

Mitsuhiko hopped down from the pitch, he and Ayumi had sit on and walked over to Genta and the door. "What are you waiting for?" he asked and turned his empty eyes at his friends. "We have a friend and a doctor to rescue."

'_And maybe we find Alice first. I bet he wouldn't recognize me getting a little revenge on this girl'_ he though.

* * *

_AN: Wuhu ^0^ In my word this is page 100! Congrats to you and me for making at that far :3  
_

* * *

_Please leave a review to help me improve :}_


	17. Meeting the actors

**_[Act 17] - ||Meeting the actors||_**

-Ai-

They had kept walking for a time that felt like hours until Kato had finally sighed audible and stopped them. _'Ok, that's it. I haven't spent 20 years studying a disease to now believe that a little girl can __talk__ it away.'_ Was what he'd said. His answer to their question what he wanted to do else was that he wanted to inform the police. _'And how? The windows are barred and the doors are guarded.'_ Ai had told him. He wanted to simply call them. _'He's no idiot. Even I'd already have cut us off from the phone and handy net' _Alice's answer had been.

'_He said she's the smartest of you, but that the doctor is the silliest… wow I hadn't thought so.'_ This voice had made the three of them wince and glare ahead, not daring to turn around. It was no voice Ai knew, it was young and male and so the only one Ai could imagine standing there was Kato's trainee… The good news were he wasn't dead.

Likely the three of them were all fighting the urge to simply run away, but knowing that this would only invite the cannibal behind them to start hunting them. Slowly one after the other turned around and looked at the thin man who hardly tried to appear scary. In fact he was the first cannibal Ai felt like laughing at. He was so obviously scared of the doctor who was twice as big as him and the girls he'd seemingly been warned of, that he was literally shaking.

"Is it just me or is this shadow of a monster shivering?" Kato asked, chortling sarcastically. "Oh, don't be rude, I'm afraid he's scared" Alice answered.

"S…stop that foolish chatter! I'm here to help you, so be quiet and wait for me to rescue you."

"And what about me?" Alice asked happily tilting her head. "I'm hopeless, I can't be helped." Ai snickered while the trainee glared at her with wide eyes. "He told me you'd try to confuse us!"

Ai nodded "yeah, Alice has always been naughty. Let the poor guy do his job."

"Gomen, gomen" Alice replied and both girls burst out in laughter again. Ai wasn't entirely sure how she was able to laugh in such a situation; but a fact was that all this adrenaline within her needed a way to escape and laughing seemed a lot more pleasant to her than screaming or crying.

"Let's go girls. You better don't follow us, I seriously believe that even one of the kids would easily be able to knock you out." Kato said to quit their laughter and the three of them turned around. "Wait! You two need to stay here! The bow-girl can go if she wants, he wants to take care of her himself anyways."

Ai saw Alice instantly stopping to move, her friend turned around. "C…Conan is what?"

"Stop calling him by this disrespectful name!" the trainee complained about Alice not using –kun at the end of his name. "Let's go Alice. Just ignore him." Ai tried to pull Alice away from the trainee. "He's going to tear you apart! He doesn't tolerate disrespectfulness at all!" the trainee shouted after them and Ai kept Alice walking on. No matter that she had told Kato she'd be able to deal with him trying to kill her, it seemed that now that someone had threatened her with it she wasn't able to deal with it at all.

* * *

-Alice-

Inwardly Alice begged Ai wouldn't stop pulling her away. She didn't feel like she'd be able to walk on her own and then she'd have no other choice then staying with this man that told her such horrible things. She had decided she wouldn't allow anything to get in her way to rescue Shinichi, also the cannibal disease. But never until now she'd really imagined this disease looking like him.

"Remember your plan" a deep voice said and Alice glared up; the last person she'd expected to start talking was Kato. "What?" she wondered. "Don't let this destroy your plan. Finding him, talking to him, healing him. Easy, right?"

"But… you don't like my plan" she mumble "right. But I want to know if it works, though. So give your best, ok?" He looked at her and she looked back, then she nodded. "I just wonder how it will be to see him" she murmured more to herself than to the others, but Ai replied though "I'm afraid you'll find out about it soon" and with this words she stopped pulling Alice and jerked her head at the corner in front of them.

A boy was waiting there, looking at his watch like he was waiting for the bus or a date that was late and in a way it was this calmness – this everyday-attitude that twisted Alice's stomach.

They only made some steps further over to him when he looked up. His and Alice's eyes met – he smiled. "Call me crazy, but I knew you wouldn't come alone. Never let a trainee do a cannibal's job" he said and Alice felt her legs nearly giving in. How could his voice sound so much like it did every day? Why wasn't it twisted, echoing or changed in a way she knew from horror movies? She'd been grateful for every little thing that had distinguished this person in front of her from the Conan she knew.

"Fascinating, she really told us the truth; we thought you to be dead. Well I can correct that." Kato was the first to speak, before Alice's brain could even sort the image she saw Kato had already raised his weapon and pointed it at Conan's head; both facing each other motionlessly. "No!" Alice shouted and jumped between Kato and the cannibal. To her own surprise she hadn't been the only one to scream.

Slowly she turned around and saw that a girl with a hair band had appeared and placed herself just some inches away from Alice between them, too. "Ayumi-chan?" she mumbled, Ayumi's reply was a toxic look. "Aren't they cute?" Conan asked with a look at Ayumi and Alice and then back at Kato, Alice felt sick and used; she had tried to rescue Conan but this thing was answering for him. "They understood that this wouldn't be working."

"Outta the way Alice" Kato hissed; Alice didn't move. "He may be immortal for now but when we cured him and you hurt important organs he'll die, so lower your weapon!" she hissed back. "CURE?!" Ayumi shrieked from behind Alice and made her turn around again. "You say that like you'd do him a favor, but it will only kill him!"

"Kill…?" Alice murmured. Slowly she understood what was going on. "Ayumi-chan, please!" Ai tried, but Ayumi fully ignored her. "Ayumi, the trainee should be waiting somewhere further down this corridor. Why don't you bring Ai and the doctor there? Alice, we have a talk in private?"

Ayumi turned around to him, starring, but Alice was the first to make a sound. She breathed out through her nose "don't think I'd let you boss me around."

"How can you…?!" Ayumi began shrilly.

"Kato, please get Ai outta here" Alice said, looking at the two of them. "Alice!" Ai objected but Alice didn't let her finish her sentence. "Ai you can still be infected, please."

She looked at Kato again. "Try to find a way out. The doors may be guarded but you could make it!" Kato exchanged a look with her. Finally he grabbed Ai's arm and pulled her away. Before Alice could say a thing Ayumi rushed after them. Alice turned around to stop her but a strong hand had already reached for her arm and glued her to the spot.

"You're petty bolt. You sent the only two people away who are thinking like you in this hospital." His voice sounded threatening, but she could still hear the usual him in this voice. Slowly she turned around to him; this close she could see that the past week had also left marks on his face. He looked tired and pale, but also determined. "You're starring" he mumbled with a smile and she felt her cheeks glooming. "It's a rare case that you see a carnivore looking so much like a person you like" she replied pissed.

"Carnivor? From the two of us you are the only one that tasted human flesh until now" Alice's eyes slightly widened. If he wasn't lying, and she didn't saw why he should, he hadn't killed anyone until now. "Remember it?" he asked, bringing his face very close to hers. "With every nightmare, yes" she snapped and tried to wriggle her arm out of his grip. He replied with painfully increasing the pressure he used. She gasped "it hurts" he mumbled, twisting her arm slightly to her back, choosing an angle that forced her down to the floor. "I wish I could spare you that."

"That's what you're up to do, right?" she asked breathy, still struggling against his grip. The last thing she wanted was to be pushed down onto the floor. "I didn't understand what you were planning until now; I just knew that you have a plan… Ayumi made me see it. You think you save everyone when you infect the world."

"And you think I'm wrong?" he asked with his calm voice, watching her doubling over until her legs met the ground. "You are! Immortality? That has never been a thing to interest you. The life is valuable because it's short, remember?"

"It's not only the fact that no one has to die anymore, it's also that things like pain will vanish completely." He let go off her arm and she gasped audible, tears in her eyes. "Isn't that better? Why shouldn't everybody be allowed to lead their lives painless."

"I'd now start explaining you that everyone would choose a life full of pain over a life without a single emotion at all, but you know all that! It's this weird disease that makes you come up with this idea." She supported herself on the hand he hadn't twisted and slowly tried to get up again. He sighed "I hoped I could get this done without hurting you unnecessarily, but I can't let you die while believing I'm a monster."

"Do you listen to yourself?!" she shouted, shaky standing on her legs. "This is nothing Shinichi would say! The Shinichi I know never…"

"Then you maybe don't know me" he interrupted her. "I know you! The real you! I just don't understand what you've become." He avoided her look. "Shinichi! Look at me and explain it to me, or can't you? Can't you because you don't remember what it's like being the real you? Look at me and tell me you don't remember!"

She'd started crying now, no matter how she hated it and had tried to cover it through screaming her sight started to blur and she felt an invisible power choking her. "Then don't you remember me either?" she asked breathily since he hadn't answered. "It's me! Lilly!" he rolled his eyes uncomfortably and she knew she had to dig deeper. "We met 14 years ago. I barely spoke Japanese. You taught me! You're a detective and you know everything about me! You're the only one who knows about what my parents really are like and I know you! So tell me if you remember me!"

For a moment after she'd stopped shouting silence seemed to drown them until a tired smile curled his lips. "Of course I remember you, how could I forget such a crazy girl that means so much to me?" Lilly's look brightened in bliss. "And I can't believe I'll never meet her again… she's gone for 6 month and I hoped today would be the day that we could meet again." Lilly's happiness died right away; he wasn't talking about her. "S… stop that" she mumbled, he was getting close to a point Alice didn't feel like touching. "Now tell me, do you remember her? She modified a disease though it hurt her."

"I didn't…"

"She managed it to use a bunch of brainless monsters for her own plans and…"

"I told you to…"

"and she showed me how it feels like being a cannibal."

He'd turned the tables; Alice felt how he forced memories back into her mind she'd desperately tried to forget. She shook her head, unable to reply anything. "So, is she still in there?" he asked and looked straight at her. "I don't want to believe a silly injection should have killed her; she's far too strong for that." His look suddenly softened, like he'd just understood by now that he'd hurt her. He walked closer to her and ran his hand over her wet cheeks while she let it happen. She felt paralyzed by what he'd said.

Not only that he'd showed her that all this was maybe her fault, he'd also planted this fear in her mind. She remembered the cannibal-Alice and he'd been right. She had been strong; overwhelmingly. So… what if she was still in there?

"I came here because I have to kill you. You're going to die in a very bloody and painful way… don't tell me that's what you want."

He mumbled and she shuddered under the feeling of his breath against her skin. "Or you could let me try to help you… Come back to painlessness and immortality and come back to me."

He'd somehow drawn her into a hug. She felt her heart pumping fast, before she opened her mouth to reply. "Cannibals are masters in tempting. So please forgive me but I won't be hypnotized by false promises and fears." She'd managed to keep her voice calm though tears and shivering were still working against her. "That's not it" he began but she had already gotten herself out of his grip. "I bet you held Ayumi like that, too, when you made her believe all your neat lies."

She pressed her arms against him and their looks met again, both glaring at the other one icily. "Are you aware that you're just deciding against life?" he asked angrily. "Decide _for_ a life with you? I'd rather choose the bloody death" she snapped back; anger against this thing that was still fighting against her Shinichi raised in her mind and returned her the control of her body. She mustn't fall for such lies; cannibal-Lilly was gone, now she had to focus on the cannibal in front of her. Suddenly she felt his hands around her waist roughly grabbing her and lifting her up from the floor before he slammed her aback against the near corridor-wall.

The air was instantly pressed out of her lungs while he furiously replied "suit yourself, but don't complain when you get what you want."

"Stop talking and start this! It's rude to play with your food anyways" she snapped breathlessly.

A smirk entered his face "if you'd know how much I enjoy this." He pulled her away from the wall and made her hit the floor; she was barely able to dampen her fall with her hands. Fast she recognized that none of her experience in fighting would be useful against him; he was too strong, too fast and wouldn't feel any possible pain. "All those supporters who blindly follow me are useful, but horribly boring."

She heard his voice growing louder, he was approaching again. Fast she rolled aside and shortly escaped his grip. "You're a lot more fun, but you're holding back, too, aren't you?" he asked closing up on her. "I'm not going to hurt his body" she answered walking backwards, though she knew this would only work as long as he allowed it to. "In case you could really get him back I bet he would favor a broken bone over the knowledge that he killed you."

With one step he gapped the distance between them and brought her down to the floor again. Before he was able to get hold of her wrists and ankles she raised her legs and kicked him off of her. Fast she got up her feet; she knew this had only worked because she had caught him in surprise. When he got up, he looked at her in confusion. She shrugged "you're right. I won't let you kill me."

They faced each other for a moment. Alice was breathing hardly and she felt her arm hurting badly. He'd twisted the same arm that had already been hurt and in addition she felt guilt slowing her down. She'd hurt him, it didn't matter he didn't feel it at the moment; when he would be himself again he would and she hated the thought. And Conan, who got up from the floor, doubtlessly enjoying their fight. It didn't take her too long to recognize her chances to survive were tending to zero, not to speak about her chances to win.

* * *

-Kato-

Kato kept pulling the girl away from the cannibal-boy. Their pace quickened, but Kato knew they wouldn't make it very far… He could hear fast footsteps behind them approaching. Kato let his eyes fretfully scan their surroundings. The most important thing now was to find a hideout for the girl, she would likely be the first aim of whoever followed them.

A door right across the corridor caught Kato's attention. It was one of those 'going to be offices' like his, they were building in the BCH. One of the rooms that would make a safe hideout…

"In there" Kato push Ai to run the last steps even faster, he jammed the key into its lock and opened the door. "You stay here! I'll get ya as soon as it's safe again" he explained and pushed the girl inside the room before she could even start objecting. He closed the door again and locked it. A little calmer he turned around. At least the girl was safe, now he needed to lure the cannibal on their heels away; he doubted the door, no matter how thick it was, would stand a cannibal's attack for too long.

He turned around and rushed further down the corridor; hearing the steps in his back closing up on him. A smirked curled his lips as he took the next corner without slowing down, by simply pushing his hands against the wall ahead and using his speed to get away again. He was fit, he was fast and he had experience in fighting as much as in escaping; how he had missed it! In the jungle, where he and his team had started their researches, he had soon understood that it wasn't enough to analyze the disease, one also needed to be able to fight it physically.

Fight it… annoyed he ran his hand over the side of his body, this was neither the place nor the time for silly memories, he reminded himself; the footsteps were now this close that he was sure he could see his chaser if he wanted. Half out of a mood he abruptly stopped and turned around right on the spot and started to shoot. His eyes hadn't fully focused after turning around, but they'd recognized some sort of movement following his shots. He had missed his chaser, whoever it was. Kato used the short break to reload the magazine of his weapon.

Calmly Kato raised his revolver again at the corner some feet ahead, which his chaser had used for shelter. "You're pretty fearful for something immortal" he snarled. "Shut up!" a female voice snapped back, obviously his chaser was the nurse. "Sekai, right?" he called over to the corner. As an answer the slim body of the young woman entered the corridor. Her skin hadn't lost any color, so only her cold look and the bite mark at her wrist told Kato about the monster he faced. "What are you waiting for?" Kato mumbled, concentrated aiming for her head. Cannibals may weren't able to die, but a bullet right into their evil faces slowed them down. "If… If I attack you, you'll shoot me."

Kato blinked surprised. This was nothing a cannibal usually worried about… usually they weren't worrying about anything else than tearing humans apart, but also the way _how_ she'd said it. Hesitantly, thinking about the consequences… this was typical for a human, but defiantly not for a carnivorous zombie. The man gulped, but aimed for the nurse's head again. "Why do ya care? It's not like you'd feel the pain of the shoot or could die." Kato asked, not sure if those things were able to give him proper answers. "Maybe you wouldn't care, but I'd mind my face looking like a crater!" she snapped and surprised Kato again. He lowered his weapon and raised an eyebrow. Did the drug within the bow-girl really made the disease spare such a big areal of the brain? Not only the logical part of the mind seemed spared for the most part, this cannibal also knew about fear… Kato however, could barely finish those thoughts, since Sekai only seemed to have waited for him to lower his weapon. As soon as he stopped aiming she trusted forward and brought Kato to the floor.

Kato instinctively raised his head to prevent it from hitting the floor and blacking out, his hand hit the floor hard though and he felt his hand letting go of his beloved revolver. When he opened his eyes again he looked into a face that was smiling in satisfaction. "Hihi, I hadn't thought it'd be this easy. But he said if I manage it to catch your attention with how the disease changed you'd get distracted. He even told me how to do it; he's brilliant, isn't he?"

Kato clenched his teeth while he tried to shake the cannibal off of him; it turned out to be as useless as a direct fight against a cannibal always had been. "I met you. Some weeks ago, when you were still a human and you told me how much kids annoy you. And now? Look at you, you're taking orders from one." Sekai didn't grew as angry as Kato had hoped her to; he'd hoped she'd stop watching out and he could escape, but she just brought her eyes very close to his, so he could nearly see the insanity within them and hissed "it takes nothing more than a single bite to change your opinion."

Again Kato pressed against the small nurse with all his power, she didn't move the slightest, except her smile growing wider while talking. "You'll make a great supporter. You're fighting hardly for what you believe in and it'll be a pleasure to be the one who gets you to believe the right things."

A huge sigh escaped Kato's mouth as he stopped struggling against the nurse on top of him. "Listen honey" he began "you're cute but this wouldn't work out, so be a good girl and get your dead body off of uncle Kato before he needs to shoot your face until no one will ever know if you've been a woman or a piece of modern art."

Unimpressed by his threat Sekai dug her sharp teeth deep into Kato's shoulder and cause the man to growl in pain.

* * *

_Please leave a review to help me improve :}_


	18. A backstage-romance

**_[Act 18] - ||A backstage-romance||_**

-Ai-

"Hey! HEYYY!" Ai banged her fists against the thick door, Kato had locked her behind. "Let me out!" She threw he body against the hard wood without any reaction of the door. _"Calm down"_ she warned herself. To keep cool was one of her strengths she liked most, but right now she lacked it. She tried to get her breath back under control. _"Calm down"_ she reminded herself again, but inwardly she knew she didn't want to. How should she calm down when her friends where outside of this door fighting each other? She had been locked away in a dark room, maybe for her best, but it drove her more anxious than being out there; out there she could help, maybe… In here she'd be useless.

She clenched her fists against the door. Even out there she hadn't been that useful. She hadn't even been able to decide whether to believe Alice or not. The thought that it could be Kudo-kun didn't even cross her mind for a second. And she hadn't managed to keep the kids safe… Ayumi, Genta… "Mitsuhiko" she mumbled and tried to picture how the boy had woken up. Lonely and suffering from a disease he didn't understood.

"Yes?"

Instantly Ai opened her eyes, her whole body tensed and she turned around. Close to her, within this dark and locked room someone had answered her. Ai wasn't someone to doubt her mind, but this was impossible… her mind was playing a trick on her. Slowly, very carefully, her hand started searching for a light switch and just when her fingertips touched the cool plastic border around the switch something stopped her. A hand, as cold as the plastic she felt, had grabbed her hand and stopped it from switching on the light.

"Oh god" she breathed, unable to pull her hand away or make another move. With her back turned to the door and her hand still on the switch she tried to figure out what was going on. If there was really someone with her, why didn't she hear him breathing? How could a human skin feel this cold in the middle of summer? Actually the strawberry-blond saw only one answer to those questions.

"Mitsuhiko-kun?" she asked very low, like her voice actually didn't want to hear an answer. "Don't switch the light on please." His well known voice caused Ai to gasp again "oh dear god!"

"I didn't want to frighten you" he explained calmly "so maybe it'd be better to leave the light off." To Ai's surprise she felt the cold hand releasing hers. The girl hesitated, but finally she pulled her hand back without turning the light on. "Mi… Mitsuhiko-kun, what are you doing here?" she asked, her voice shook as much as her body did. "I was sitting here… actually I was thinking about a lot of stuff before this Kato suddenly opened the door and threw you in."

Ai frowned "but the door was locked… how could you have waited in here then?"

"Because of this."

Ai blinked.

"Oh, right you can't see it, sorry!" Mitsuhiko's voice laughed and before Ai could say something else she felt the cold hand gently pressing something even colder against her cheek. Doubtlessly it was a little metal key; she felt its teeth that brought goose bumps to her skin. "A key he gave to us… well some of us at least" he laughed again "please don't tell him I used it to get some time on my own, he wouldn't be too pleased to hear that."

Ai felt the metal getting pulled away again and she couldn't help but shiver. Mitsuhiko was really with her in this room… and he sounded so calm and even his laughter sounded happy… "Mitsuhiko you… I mean, you are…"

"One of those cannibals, yeah." His tone of voice had darkened while saying that and she heard his footsteps walking away from her. "But that means you will…" she began, walking some steps ahead to the place where she guess Mitsuhiko to be, but after some time of carefully walking her hands found the wall… "Mitsuhiko?" she mumbled and let her hands slide left and right but she couldn't find the boy. "Where are you?"

"You can't see anything, right? My eyes stopped working… I mean they can figure silhouettes and shadows, but that's mainly everything." Ai turned around again, his voice came from a corner to her right. "I don't have to see anything though" he continued "my ears and nose make it unnecessary… Right now I hear you slowly walking around, touching the walls with your hands to position and I bet you're knitting your eyebrows because you desperately try to see through the darkness." As soon as Ai recognized he was right she lowered her arms and relaxed her face. The boy laughed like he'd seen her reaction.

She breathed out and crossed her arms in front of her body, she wasn't in the mood for playing games, not as long as she felt this uncomfortably and… scared. "I was really worried when I woke up." Mitsuhiko mumbled with this odd dark and calm voice he used. "I know… gomen" Ai replied. "I mean I tried to help you and when I woke up, suddenly a cannibal, I was there all by myself."

"Gomen" Ai repeated, she meant it. "It's not your fault" Mitsuhiko's voice explained next to her ear. Ai gasped and wanted to turn around but he grabbed her shoulders and glued her to the spot. "I remember you wanting to stay with me… even to help me. Alice however had her own plan…" Something in the way he made his sentence sound like something was about to follow twisted Ai's stomach. "No, Mitsuhiko she just wanted to heal Conan-kun so everything will be like it was before" she explained and managed it to turn around; not that she was able to see his face.

"But it don't has to be like it was before!" his voice grew insisting. "It can stay like this. It's not that bad being a cannibal… sure it needs getting used to, but all pain stops, you're immortal and…"

"You kill people" Ai finished for him. "That's not what we want" Mitsuhiko objected "far from it. We want stop people from dying; it is so easy! A little bite and there won't be any murders anymore! No deadly diseases, no world hunger, no accidents, nothing like that!"

"Because the whole world will already be dead… living corpses, emotionlessly waiting to rot away" she snapped but somehow she felt this hadn't changed his opinion; she could have sworn he smiled. "Emotionless? Do you really think that right now I don't feel a thing?"

"Mitsuhiko…-kun?" she felt very uncomfortable as he said that… Not in a way she felt uncomfortable because she was in a dark room with a cannibal, but uncomfortable because her face ran all warm. "Maybe I lied" he mumbled, bringing his face even closer to her "there is pain. I don't know how one could describe what I felt when you'd left, but as 'pain'."

The strawberry-blond pushed her arms against Mitsuhiko's chest and made him freeze. She needed to get away. This was far too uncomfortable for her. Her face was red, her stomach didn't stop to feel weird and the fear increased. "Not like this" she begged and wriggled out of his grip. She was 18, he was 7; that were too many years to be ignored! She rushed over to the door again; she needed to get out of this room. "Is someone out there?!" she shouted, knowing that the chances someone heard her who didn't want to eat her were really bad. Too often she seemed to have forgotten Mitsuhiko was a child! A boy. Though he often acted caring and clever she knew she couldn't allow such feelings towards him. It wasn't only for her age, she was still a threat to her friends; Mitsuhiko would never be safe again.

"Like what then?" he asked, she heard he was closing up on her again. "I… don't know" she tried, but his hands turned her around and pressed her back against the door before she could finish her answer. "Then you just have to trust me this time" he said with this calm voice and pressed his body against hers; a hug Ai couldn't escape. "Mitsuhiko, please!" she objected while felt the air on her skin moving while he spoke. "Don't worry."

The girl's scream was muffled by Mitsuhiko kissing her and then he let go off her. She collapsed on the floor, pressing her hand against her lips and trying to prevent her mind from blacking out. "I know you hate me for this at the moment" she heard his voice form above while her mind clouded more and more; mixing logic with insanity. "But in the end it will be for the best."

* * *

-Alice-

He slammed her sore body against a window and before she could collapse on the floor he reached for her neck, making her dangle some inches above the floor. She couldn't tell how often this had happen, or how often it was about to happen again; she just knew that her body wouldn't stand this fight for much longer. "I'm really going to miss that" he said while he raised her slowly higher up "though I bet the fight would have been a lot more fun if you wouldn't be stuck in this poor body."

Ignoring the urge to struggle against his grip she relaxed her body and made every muscle go limp. For a moment she knew she had to remain in this condition and allow him choking her, but finally his grip soften and in this moment she slammed her knee into his side and managed it to escape once again. It was a trick her father had taught her once _'you're enemy will let go because he thinks you blacked out, this is your chance to strike back!'_ he'd said.

She rushed further down the corridor and around a corner. This was wrong. She didn't want to follow a single of her father's tips to fight people and Conan wasn't her enemy. The word 'fight' didn't fit what was happening here anyways. It was a game. She was a mouse in a labyrinth traced by a cat. She never had a real chance to win; her only glimpse of hope was that the cat would accidentally let her escape while playing with her. She speeded around the next corner, pushing herself against the wall ahead to not lose any speed. The faster she was the longer she would be able to escape him before he'd slam her into the next wall or push her to the ground seeing how long she made it without air or how he had to twist single parts of her body to make her scream.

She struggled, nearly fell, but could catch her balance in time and ran on. How long since she'd seen Kato and Ai? Ten minutes? Twenty? More? She'd lost any feeling for time, but the one thought kept her on her feet. Soon he would get bored of this, then he'd start toying with the thought of killing her and this was when her chances to escape where the highest.

Alice ran past something that caught her attention. She stopped running and turned around right on the spot though it didn't make her feel too comfortable. It was like he sometimes allowed her to run, but as soon as she stopped he attacked her again; it was a game with punishment. _'Keep being an interesting prey or die'_ but this time she needed to risk it.

A door had slightly been open; a broom closet someone hadn't locked. Looking around she recognized Conan hadn't caught up with her yet… it was unlike that she'd seriously hurt him so he likely was waiting at a corner further ahead… he really had studied the floor plans well; to Alice however all those corridors were nothing but a labyrinth. She slipped into the closet and fast found what she'd searched for. She grabbed the slim wood stick of a mop and tried to move it. It wasn't too heavy so she could carry it, but the metal ring that fixed the mop-head to the stick would make this a useful weapon nevertheless.

Carefully looking around she slipped out of the closet again and ran back. If he was really waiting at a corner ahead she wouldn't do him the favor of being a good mice and run blindly into it. If she could make it to a stairwell she'd have a chance of escaping, she maybe would be able to leave the hospital and get help… the police maybe… or the FBI! Jodie-sensei had always been a trustworthy person and she'd be able to get everyone the help they needed, since talking turned out as useless as Kato had guessed it to be.

Footsteps! Alice body tensed and her pace quickened while she rushed around a corner to her left. He seemed to have recognized her change of direction so he'd stopped waiting and started hunting again. She held the mop like a lance next to her body, but it still slowed her down. _"Stairwell! Stairwell where are you?!"_ fretful scanning every door with her eyes she rushed through the labyrinth of white corridors and doors; some wooden, some white, but none glassy like the doors leading to the stairs and still she could hear him approaching.

"_Please give me a stairwell! I will never ask for anything again, but please! A stairwell!"_ she prayed inwardly, desperately trying to ignore the agony her sore body made her fell. Her tired arms must have slightly let the mop sink down since its top suddenly touched the ground and Alice tumbled over it. Together with her new weapon she hit the floor. She knew she'd caused enough noise to tell a normal person that she was close, but to a cannibal this must have exactly told him where she was and what had happened.

Ignoring her now aching knees she got onto them and grabbed the mop. "You have a soft spot for brooms as weapons, don't you?" his voice made her wince and fast she got up on her feet. "This is a mop" she replied petulant and turned around to him, at least he was at the other end of the corridor, he hadn't fully caught up on her, yet. "Right, I'm horribly sorry" he called sarcastically but something about what he'd said brought a worried expression to Alice's face. "You… can't see very well, can you? I recognized your eyes weren't following my moves when we fought and now this… they stopped working, didn't they?"

Slowly he started walking over to her and she started to walk backwards "yeah, my sight's slightly blurred. Don't worry about it too much; I have other senses doing their job well enough."

They were still moving through the corridors without changing the distance between them. "Are you going to hit me with this _mop_?" he asked calmly "if I have to!" she called back, her voice sounded throaty, it was sore of all the screaming. "Let me redraft the question: Are you going to hit _this body_ with the mop?"

She hesitated "if… I have to." He smiled and without wasting another moment for talking he thrust forward. She had waited for this and rushed around running further down the corridor. Her head-start gave her enough time to reach the next corner and when she passed it by her eyes widened in happiness. A glassy door! The stairwell was close! She quickened her pace a finale time, carefully making sure the mop wouldn't cause her to trip again and reached the heavy door.

She grabbed its handle and pushed it down. Her face dropped. "No!" she gasped and pushed the handle down again. How could this be locked?! Who would lock an emergency door?! "I know it's a little dangerous but I asked my trainee and Mitsuhiko to make sure every door is locked" his voice was close, he would soon reach her. Desperation choking her, Alice pushed down the handle again and again, but the door wasn't opening, she'd rather broken off the handle.

"This hospital is old, every key opens every door. Isn't that handy?" She reached for her mop and hesitated. This was safety-glass… in a house that once had been an asylum every door would be safe… Alice blinked. What had he said? Every key worked on every door?

She smiled; finally the luck was on her side.

* * *

-Conan-

He was closing up on her, slowly, and tried to figure what he'd do now. This had been fun, but slowly he couldn't stand her screaming and whining anymore, she was no match for him – not as long as she was holding back like this. He was tired of the desperation glooming out of her eyes whenever she looked at him, like she could see through him into someone she'd once known, but slowly this gloom had faded, a little more with every time he fought her to the ground; at least this had been a small triumph.

This game was over now, he decided he'd savored it as long as he could, now it was time to release her out of this misery; she would honor him doing so, of that he was sure, no matter how deep this antidote had buried her. He walked into the corridor Alice had vanished inside and felt surprised. He just saw blurred walls and floor, no trace of a moving person, in addition he couldn't hear her, nor could he smell her – she was gone.

He clenched his teeth and rushed down the corridor, this was impossible; this was a dead end, the corridor, without places to hide, ended with a fire door that was locked. It took his eyes some effort to recognize a slightly moving shape behind the glass of the door.

"How?!" he called and the shape winced, slowly it turned around to him and though the glass prevented his eyes from seeing more than a misty silhouette he felt this gloom of hope reappearing. "This hospital is old, every key opens every door. Isn't that handy?" she raised her hand, likely to show him a small key; she'd made it in there because of something _he_ told her – his look darkened.

"So you don't have a key right now, right? You said you sent Mitsuhiko and this trainee to lock the door, so I figured my chances weren't too bad you don't have another one with you." Her voice was happy; she must have been smiling proudly what increased his anger. "You…" he began, she interrupted him "don't be a bad loser, that doesn't fit you."

An angry smiled curled his lips, this woman was the limit and she'd pay for that. "Well, now excuse me. I gotta get out of here and call the police to help you" she turned away and he gave her a dry laughter. She hesitated – the reaction he'd hoped for. "Do you really think I didn't put that into account? _'What if the police get into the way?'_ A question every idiot allows and I should've forgotten it?"

The silhouette turned around and he continued. "I don't say it'll make things easier, but I wouldn't call it a problem either."

"The police will be here within minutes, the next station is…"

"20 minutes away, _by car_."

She hesitated again and he smirked.

"As soon as my supporters see a person leaving the hospital we'll leave; I have a second hideout and then everything will go its way pretty fast."

"I will find you" she mumbled and caused him to laughed again. "Of course I didn't choose a location I'm connected to in any way; one of my supporters has a friend of a cousin who I got the rooms from. I bet the world will have changed before you've even figured which supporter I'm talking about."

"Shi…"

She began, he interrupted her "don't be a bad loser, that doesn't fit you. Trying to call on me because you're stuck isn't really nice."

For a moment he watched, well more listened to her trying to find a way out of his plan then he calmed his voice; if he sounded enough like the Shinichi she knew, he'd maybe be able to lure her out into the corridor again.

"You don't want that. First you need to escape from here, maybe you'll fail and a monster will tear you apart before you're a use to anyone. And then? Even if you make it out and can convince a single officer to believe you, you will return to an abandoned hospital. Afterwards, when you spent days with searching for us, people around you will start behaving weird – the change has begun. Within a month it's over and there will be only one human left; you - one month from now at most until you will be all alone. Now tell me how it will end? Will you try to survive in a world full of cannibals? No… you will take your own life and I know you well enough to know that this will be the moment you regret not letting me do it… I'll do it fast, as painless as possible and you won't be alone when it happens."

The silhouette wasn't moving and for the moment he could only wait for her to make her decision. A sudden noise appeared from behind the fire door and Conan and Alice both winced. He saw her shape turning around to the stairwell from where the noise was coming. Something was approaching – it was fast and strong and angry and if it was what Conan feared it to be he'd lose his chance to say goodbye to Alice. No matter how much his supporters listened to him he doubted he could prevent a bloodthirsty cannibal from eating a rare human when it was in rage.

* * *

_Please leave a review to help me improve :}_


	19. Lacking the cue

**_[Act 19] - ||Lacking the cue||_**

****_I'm sorry for not updaing until now! I was pretty busy with christmas, my Lemon FF and right now I'm sick so I really had no time...  
_

_Anyways :) here you go now~ new chappy x3 Enjoy!  
_

* * *

-Alice-

It had been a loud noise that had brought her mind back into the dark stairwell of the hospital. Doubtlessly a cannibal caused it – and it sounded furious.

"Run!" it was the sound of honest fear that she hadn't heared for a long time that brought her eyes back to the boy behind the door once again; what he'd said had been far to creepy and she'd decided she couldn't look at him again. But now that she saw him, eyes widened and body tensed she couldn't help but see her Conan within him. "A cannibal is coming! Hurry up! Come out of there" She knitted her eyebrows. "You'll kill me."

His eyes went fretfully over her shoulder into the stairwell and back to her face, though he could barely be able to see a thing. "Ok, then run upstairs, I'll try to hold it back!"

Her look remained doubtful, how could she know this wasn't just a new trick? More noise of a fight appeared and they seemed to approach. "I'll have a look at what's going on" she mumbled, not knowing if she needed to inform this once known person behind the door of her actions. "Wait, NO!" he called but she had made her decision, right now she couldn't think of anything worse than the future he'd shown her.

Slowly, with uplifted mop, she sneaked downstairs, to where the noise was coming from. It wasn't only that she needed to get away from him, even if it was just for a second, she also knew that cannibals weren't fighting against each other – they fought humans; a cannibal making fighting noise meant a human somewhere close; maybe someone who needed her help.

She didn't make it very far; actually she didn't even reach the first step downwards, when they ran into her. She hit the floor and lost grip of her mop.

"Let go of me! Hentai!"

"Who'd want to touch a cannibalistic nurse?!"

Voices were shouting at each other while Alice only saw pieces of cloth and skin flashing over her.

"I bit you, why the hell don't you change?"

"I banged your head against the wall, why the hell don't you die?"

Alice crawled out of the huddle of fighting people and looked back. Kato and this nurse were rolling over each other, fighting with hands and feet, teeth and a (seemingly a bullet-less) gun, that made a handy batter. Sekai's head was bleeding, though she didn't seem to bother about pain or loss of blood. Kato had a deep wound at his shoulder beyond his ripped shirt and was obviously slowly reaching the limit of his stamina.

"S… stop it!" she called, her voice remaining unheard.

"I'm the inventor of an antidote, able to heal the most serious case of cannibalism; you really believed I wouldn't take it myself?"

"Stop talking to me! Just die."

"Stop fighting!" Alice shouted this time and the fighting people looked up at her. The wish to have searched for her mop before shouting entered her brain when she saw Sekai's eyes widening. "You!" she showed her a smile that bared her teeth while she rolled on top of Kato who was breathing audible.

"Sekai!" Conan's voice cut through the air and the cannibal-nurse winced. "Wh… where are you?" she wondered. "Behind the door." his voice had grown slightly annoyed. "Fine. Then I can bring her right out to you" the nurse shook Kato off and closed up on Alice.

The girl felt surprised when she saw the nurse approaching, big and creepy – and the only thing she felt was anger. If Conan was right would this be her life? Fighting cannibals or escaping from them by the skin of her teeth? She wouldn't allow that and a sudden idea came to her mind.

"Assign her Conan." Her voice was calm and loud while she called back without taking her eyes off of the nurse. "Why should I?" his voice was dismissive.

"Assign her, or say good-bye to me."

Kato and Sekai gave her all confused glares and she was sure Conan looked the same, so she added.

"I won't let her take me out to you, I rather die fighting her."

"…Why should I care?"

It was the little moment of hesitation that boosted her courage. "Ok, you don't. Good-bye then."

She felt bitterness when thinking about this, she was misusing his feelings towards her, but was there another way to rescue her life? Wasn't this the only way to cure him?

"Come and kill me cannibal" she looked at Sekai and made a step up at her, satisfied seeing the nurse backing off a little. "Wh… what should I do?" Sekai called over to the door and Alice fought the insisting urge to turn around to him behind the glass and read from his face what he was thinking. "Didn't you listen? Why should he care about my death? Let's fight this out; your chances against me aren't too bad" she went on instead.

She closed further up on the nurse and carefully kept looking into these unfocused eyes that showed the inner conflict. "Sekai, go away."

Everyone frozen when Conan spoke and Alice couldn't help but smile. She had won, somehow, also she had had to use a dirty trick; she had won against two cannibals. The nurse didn't even dare to object, she turned around right on the spot and vanished downstairs. "Not bad" Kato's breathy voice mumbled while he got up, using the wall as a prop.

A clapping sound appeared from behind her. "Let's go" Alice didn't look back; she just turned to leave. "He's right. I haven't seen this coming. Well done. Very sneaky. I seriously thought you two don't have a way left to go, but you'll make a great couple – not to be underestimated, though you have to see the irony in you building a team" in his voice lay anger but also something malign that scared Alice.

"Where's Ai?" Alice asked Kato, doing everything not to think about his words.

"I made sure she's saf…"

"She's with us." Conan interrupted, like it wasn't necessary to mention and continued. "You did tell her, right Kato-san? You didn't hide the big truth from the girl that maybe just rescued you."

Alice started walking; she needed to get away as soon as possible, but Kato didn't move. Actually he avoided her look completely. "What is he talking about?" she asked. "So you did not tell her?" Conan called in faked surprise. "The fact that you _infected me_."

Alice felt her innards suddenly going all heavy.

* * *

-Kato-

He hadn't seen that coming. He'd been sure not even this 'tantei' knew it but doubtlessly he did – he had seen through Kato's plan. "What does he mean?" the bow-girl looked at Kato, looking all confused and scared so he doubted to look at the same girl that had just turned a trick on a cannibal.

"Uhm…" Kato began, trying to think of a way to make his mistake don't sound _this_ big, but the cannibal had already recognized this would be a serious weak spot and Kato feared what this would to do the girl.

"Oh, you don't know how to say? Let me try it" the cannibal called from behind the door. "I mean did you really think _'your'_ Conan would have stolen the powder Alice? No. Kato was sick of his studies running so slow, so he took the chance when you, once a cannibal, lay in the hospital he worked in. He then used the air shaft to your room to re-infect you with his powder."

"That's a lie!" the girl shouted and Kato saw Alice trying to find a mistake in his explanations "if that'd be true, there…"

"He knew a small dose would be enough since you once have been infected so it wouldn't be a danger to any person who never had been a cannibal before." The cannibal continued. "Badly you were attached to a lung ventilator at this time because of the problems with your injured lungs after the fire."

Kato saw the girl going back into her memory and understanding that this time the cannibal was telling the truth.

"So to sum up, while you inhaled clean and unstained air there was someone who visited you every day, someone who inhaled the contagious air in your room all day long, someone who had also once been infected, though it was just for a short time."

The girl shook her head; Kato saw that this had shocked her and he had just understood something else.

"So this is why you were infected! I kept wondering about this ever since… No one ever told me you've been infected, too, back then."

"Who cares?!" the girl suddenly screamed, seemingly awoken from her shock and he saw her wide eyes focused on him. She had turned her back against the door and in her back he saw the cannibal-boy smirking demonically.

All this proofed Kato's knowledge – cannibals were masters in tempting and swaying people. Though the door was in his way he had gotten the girl to turn against Kato.

"You trifled with the physical and mental health of me and him! What for?!"

"The people… I mean in Africa… they suffer from this disease… I just wanted…"

"Excuses" the cannibal behind the door interrupted again and Kato could nearly see the net it was weaving around the girl's mind while she turned around to the door, looking for a way out of her situation.

"He used the two of us and would do it again. Lil, come on. You don't want to spend the rest of your time at his side fighting your real friends and you don't have to. Just open the door and I'll take care of him, later we can unhurriedly talk about what should happen to you."

Kato glared at the back of the girl, starring at the glass like she'd been hypnotized by what he said. The man pushed away all confusion about the name the cannibal had used for her and tried to come up with something he could say to get everything right again. He didn't have to though; a voice came from the girl that sounded dry, like it came from someone a lot older.

"Let's go Kato."

He blinked and saw the cannibal do the same.

The girl turned around and walked past him, over to the stairs that lead down not looking at him at all. "Lil!" the cannibal shouted after her and Kato saw her stopping. "You think I couldn't take care of him? Be sure I can."

"No" the girl didn't turn around. "I won't let you become a murderer because of someone like him." A loud bang appeared at the cannibal smashed his fist against the glass of the door; though it was safety-glass Kato saw it cracking and slowly giving in.

"Let's go" the girl echoed unimpressed and walked downstairs.

"Lilly! LILLY!" the furious voice of the cannibal shouting after them echoed in Kato's ears while he tried to keep up with the girl that fast made her way away; it didn't really seem to Kato like she had a plan where she'd escape to.

He just caught up with her when they'd reached the floor below. He stopped her and turned her around to him to look at her. "I'm sorry. Believe me I really am. I needed to help those people in Africa and I didn't though this through! Ok, I'm no man to admit mistakes, but this time I do and I understand if you hate me, but you need to keep a cool head. Don't allow him to plant weird things in your mind."

Kato glared into those eyes that looked somehow far away. "I never said I hate you, let's go now." She turned around again and Kato watched her uncomfortably. He'd enough experience with people in shock-state to know that she desperately tried to forget what she just heard, only that memories were necessarily linked to other memories and she was about to erase them one by one.

"Alice!" he called after her and she stopped and turned around, her look still hazy. "Listen to me. I know that caught you… by surprise but you need to stop that now. I know you try to prevent yourself from getting hurt and that's perfectly understandable, but right now you can't! You want to safe your friend right? Don't you want to get him back?"

For a moment they just looked at each other before she calmly asked "who?"

Kato's face dropped, he'd lost her. Why had the girl with the most vulnerable mind had to be the only one he could count on? He ran his hand over the side of his body again, his old scar hadn't hurt for ages but it had grown a habit of his to touch it in stressful situations. Finally he remembered something.

"O… Ok, I'll get you some water, ok? A friend of mine always said: '_You drink something and shout at me and calm down and afterwards we'll get out of here'_ when we were up against cannibals, all right?"

The girl nodded with the same far away expression at her face and Kato reluctantly let her back while he rushed to a close nurse-kitchen to get her a glass of water; actually his friends hadn't spoken about drinking _water_, but he doubted getting her drunk would do her any good.

Hoping it would work never the less Kato didn't recognize the girl turning around and walking away.

* * *

-Ayumi-

"What's the matter?" the dark-haired girl asked annoyed. Genta had called her downstairs to the fire-door telling her there were 'problems' with the trainee. Sekai had switched position with him since she wanted to hunt after Kato herself and Ayumi had seriously hoped this would prevent her from any further trainee-trouble; obviously she'd been wrong.

"He's behaving weird…" Genta mumbled and looked scared at the trainee… or what he once had been. The two cannibals were standing on a landing above the young man who was walking up and down in front of the fire door; his moves clumsy, like he had issues making his body obey his mind. Ayumi frowned, an uneasy feeling, or maybe just the memory of feelings, spread in her stomach but she ignored it.

"S… so? Ok, he doesn't look really smart, but…" she tried to get her calmness back.

"He isn't answering me." Genta interrupted her, "he is growling and moaning and… drooling"

Ayumi's frown increased, the trainee had been infected by Ito, that meant he was a 2; a number they had given him within their system. When one saw Conan as cannibal 0, Ito, who had been infected by Conan, was a cannibal 1 and that made the trainee a cannibal 2.

"I'll talk to him, he will answer me." Ayumi said and walked downstairs to the rocking man.

Ito, Sekai and she were cannibals 1. Genta and Mitsuhiko were cannibals 2… Ai just was a 3, infected by Mitsuhiko. That meant the trainee would listen to everyone above him… at least Ayumi hoped so. "Hey, trainee! Are you all right?"

The trainee looked at her and moaned. Ayumi knitted her eyebrows. "I want you to answer me" she said some louder, slowly growing seriously worried. The man rocked on, dump and without any ability to speak.

Ayumi clenched her fists. "Uhoh…"

She rushed up past Genta and into the treating room where she knew Mitsuhiko to be, he had been ordered to explain everything to Ai and Ayumi was afraid to find her fear getting proofed with them.

The cannibal-girl banged the door open and her stomach tensed. She saw Mitsuhiko unsecure stretching his hand out to touch Ai who sat close to him; empty eyed and hissing like a cornered cat.

"Ai-chan, what's wrong?" Mitsuhiko begged and tried to touch the girl Ayumi had once respected so much. "Mitsuhiko?" she asked and he looked up, his eyes searching for help. "She stopped talking to me! She's behaving all weird and I don't get why" he explained and Ayumi kneeled down to the strawberry-blond.

"Ai?" she asked, the girl didn't react to this name at all. Slowly, scared of what this would show her Ayumi grabbed a random tool from a desk close to her and threw it across the room. Ai rushed past Mitsuhiko her eyes on the tool and trying to break it into pieces. "Ohoh" Genta mumbled, he had followed Ayumi.

"What?!" Mitsuhiko looked at the girl he'd fought for to be with him and was close to tears. "She's a 3." Ayumi explained and looked seriously at the two boys. "Genta the trainee was the first 2 to be infected… it looks like our power isn't permanent… sooner or later it changes back into the first state… the one we all know from back then in the school."

"What do you mean by that?!" Genta shouted and Ayumi made him hush with an angry look. "3s don't seem to make it longer than half an hour… 2s around three to four hours it seems… we don't know about 1s yet. But also we will soon become like this… usual cannibals."

"No" Mitsuhiko shook his head and stroked his hand over Ai's head who neither seemed to recognize nor mind his presence. "We need to tell…"

"No!" Ayumi interrupted something determined in her voice. "It is still better than being human. Don't forget about the pain and the death humanity causes."

"We should at least tell him…"

"I… I will do that" Ayumi said and turned around to the door; she hesitated a last time. "Mitsuhiko you take care of Ai, Genta same goes for you and the trainee. Keep them out of sight for the presence."

She opened the door and closed it, shocked she leaned against it.

"You're not going to tell him a thing, do you?" a voice made Ayumi wince and the last person she wanted to see appeared.

* * *

_Please leave a review to help me improve :}_


	20. Director's arrangement

**_[Act 20] - ||Director's arrangement||_**

-Alice-

She hadn't known what happened to her when she heard how Kato had betrayed her and she had to understand that the last human near her was to blame for everything, but when she heard what was going on among the cannibal-detective-boys her mind came back again. "You're not going to tell him a thing, do you?" she asked and saw the cannibal-Ayumi wince. "I mean what happened to the trainee and… poor Ai-chan."

"You" Ayumi growled annoyed, "do me a favor and get lost, I have bigger problems to deal with than you."

Alice kept looking at her and finally Ayumi sighed. "I won't distract his mind with things that aren't important."

"All of you going to turn into drooling zombies isn't important?" she asked, wondering how far a cannibal could block out human logic. "You don't get that" Ayumi mumbled.

"I get you perfectly well. You are scared he is maybe dropping the plan when he finds out that necessarily you will all end up brainless… but I seriously don't understand why you don't drop it yourself."

Out of the sudden Ayumi grabbed Alice shoulder and pushed her into an abandoned side-corridor. "You should understand me! This is my only chance to be together with him and I won't let you destroy this!"

Ayumi took a step backwards and looked disgusted at her.

"I hoped you'd be dead by now… He assured me of that he'd do it, but it looks like he has a soft spot for his nice little pet."

"Pet?!" Alice glared at the girl but Ayumi ignored her interruption.

"And this is exactly why I will keep this knowledge away from him! The plan is good! It is awesome… but it is dangerous and he can be a little insecure."

Alice tilted her head and Ayumi added "he needs someone like me to keep information away from him that could poison his decisions." The girl turned around.

"My god, listen to you!" Alice called after her. "You will lose him! Sooner or later he and you will also be such silly monsters, is it that what you want?! To spend an eternity with an empty cover?"

Ayumi stopped and Alice felt her body tensing. The look of the cannibal-girl darkened while she was closing up on Alice. "If there's no other way, yes. But something tells me you won't keep this information to yourself."

Alice replied her look. "I don't want to hurt you, but yes. I won't let this happen."

Ayumi laughed "you don't want to hurt _me_? I don't see that happening, my dear."

Ayumi stepped in front of Alice and looked cruelly at her. "A…Ayumi you know he wouldn't want you to kill me" Alice tried, backing off; worriedly she recognized Ayumi's laughter growing louder. "Who talked about killing? I thought about hurting, just a little bit. Playing, testing, torturing, just having some fun and when I reduced you to the shivering pile of flesh you actually are I'll put this bow from your hair around your stomach and bring his precious pet to him as a late birthday present."

Alice gulped "this disease is really doing you no good Ayumi-chan" she mumbled when suddenly the cannibal-girl thrust forward at her and brought her to the floor. "I will never get what he sees in you" Ayumi wondered while sitting on top of Alice who tried to wriggle out of her grip. "Did he feel sorry for you?"

"Ayumi!" Alice shrieked; what happened to the kind girl she had known?!

"Or did he think it funny what a nut you are?"

"I… wouldn't call me a 'nut'" Alice objected, no matter how she tried to keep in mind it was just a disease speaking out of Ayumi, somehow it hurt her.

"Or what? Did he enjoy the fact that you're so super helpless!?"

Alice stopped wriggling. "What?" she asked. "You're useless." Ayumi said plainly, bringing her face close to Alice's. "Honestly, you waste your time with walking around and overhearing my problems rather than _'helping' _him?"

"You really shouldn't say that" Alice hissed, she felt anger crawling up within her.

"What? That you're more trouble than help?"

Alice look darkened "I warned you."

* * *

-Kato-

Kato fretfully ran through the corridors, the girl remained gone, why couldn't she wait for him?! He rushed around a corner and nearly spilled the water he was carrying. He had run right into Alice.

"Where have you been?!" he shouted at her. "I took a walk…?" she replied insecurely. "What's that?" she asked, looking at the glass with water in Kato's hand. "Wa…ter" he explained. "We are up against cannibals trying to take over the world and you get me water? Tsk and people call me a nut." Kato's anger got finally crushed by the sudden awareness that she seemed to have her sanity back, he blinked at the girl who passed him by; he followed her, feeling oddly confused "why is your hair all messy?" he wondered.

"I had a little conflict with a cannibal."

"Conflict means?" Kato asked worriedly. "She offended me and… hmm I don't fully remember to be honest… Everything I know is that I have her hair band here… funny" Alice mumbled and showed Kato a pink band he knew from one of the kids that now was a cannibal. He shook his head half smiling half twitching his mouth. He couldn't get rid of the thought that madness was still with her at his side, but right now he didn't mind.

"So, where are we going now? We should find an exit." Kato called but the girl shook her head. "No… as soon as we leave this hospital they will change their location… we need to cure Conan – as easy as that, remember?"

Kato raised an eyebrow as the bow-girl turned left and opened a door into a treating room with the key she'd 'borrowed'. Just minutes ago she looked like a traumatized child… now she gave him orders and discussed logical plans with him; obviously after fighting down a cannibal.

"You… you're pretty badass" he said and followed her, an unknown feeling of friendship towards the English appear in the man. She smiled and shrugged "later on I'll have to say sorry to her. The real her isn't to blame."

"So… what should we do now?" He saw Alice blinking. "You wanna hear my plan? Honestly? The great Kato-cannibal-killer wants to listen to a little girl."

He shrugged "sure, whoever is able to fight a cannibal is worth my attention. So what are you planning?"

The girl's happiness slowly faded. Her look grew thoughtful and Kato feared a new change of character. "What?" he asked. "It's just… can I hear your plan first?"

Kato frowned. "Uh-uh, come on girl, what's wrong all of a sudden? Seconds ago you acted like you had the master-plan and now…"

"I don't want you to suddenly trust me" she mumbled and surprised Kato finally put down the glass of water on a near table. "Because you still hate me?" he nodded.

"Nah, I mean I blame you for everything that happens and will happen tonight, but that's not it!" Their eyes met, "it's just that my plans tent to fail."

He grinned "what?"

"My plan to rescue Ai: a cannibal infected me. My plan to lure away cannibals from my friends: I nearly eat Conan after I did hentai stuff to him. My plan to talk to him: he mopped up the hospitals walls with me. Need any further examples?"

Kato chortled. "Hey, if I'd always given up when 90% of my plans fail I wouldn't be here today, what… well would have spared you all of this, but that's not the point."

"… Where do you find 90% in my examples? They are 100%!"

Kato nodded thoughtfully "fine, listen. My plan is we call the police and you say this will lead the cannibals to flee. Our chances to survive are then what? 1 to 5 maybe… the chances that the world will stay cannibal free instead tent to 1 to 10.000… you really want to tell me you have nothing better than that?"

He saw the girl biting her lip before she slowly explained. "It's an all-in plan. If it works everything will be fine; we will live and so will the world… if it fails instead… we're all lost."

Kato opened his mouth to answer but she added "and don't get me wrong. This isn't like the last time where I could escape after failing, to start again… We have 1 chance. All in. Win or lose."

Kato smiled widely. "That's sounds great to my ears. All doubts erased, tell me what I should do." His mood had brightened up; this was right after his fancy. A dangerous plan that would take all his strength and his partner was slightly lunatic what prevented everything from running boringly smooth. It wasn't like he meant what he said, of course there were doubts but when there was one thing he'd learned in his life in which he had often found himself up against cannibals in a hopeless situation, then it was being able to tell when someone had a good plan - it was his sixth sense and with this girl it was telling him her plan would be great.

"What you should do? Run away."

Kato's face dropped "what?!"

"Run away. Leave the rest to me."

Kato kept starring at her; this wasn't really what he thought to become a great fight, but hoping there would be something more about her plan he asked "and… what am I leaving to you? What are you going to do?"

"I'll talk to him."

Kato blinked – maybe sixth senses were overrated. She couldn't be serious. Hadn't she learned a single thing?

"But…!" he objected but Alice shook her head. "If you don't trust me this isn't going to work. Either you support me or we will drop the plan."

Kato hesitated for a lot of time until he swallowed. "Maybe I grew used to plans that just have to fail… those are often the best."

Alice smiled gratefully. "Don't worry. I still have one or two dirty tricks in my hat. The nice thing about them is that they are often helpful… the bad thing however is that they aren't nice…"

Kato saw her smile fading again. "Hey, you need to be strict with cannibals" he tried but she shook her head. "I'm going to do it, ok? Because it is the only way, so I wasn't asking for you to comfort me about it. It's just… that I will maybe hurt someone very close to me with this… I need to misuse feelings I highly value, but it's worth it… right?"

Their eyes met. "It sometimes requires being a cannibal to fight one, you see?" Kato began and smiled at the girl "get your friends back with everything it takes. This will give you the time to say sorry to them for the rest of your life."

Alice nodded "right" and satisfied Kato recognized something determined in her eyes.

"So, how are we starting this?" Kato asked "he will likely be in some room and plan his cannibal-plans. Talking to him means you need to enter the lion's den."

"Yeah… say Kato don't you think this hospital is pretty dirty?"

The man raised an eyebrow and Alice continued "I think we should start with cleaning it up" and with a malign smile she raised Kato's key.

* * *

-Conan-

Conan looked out of the window from his armchair. From the office he had a good view on the main-entrance – until now, no one had left the hospital through it. He knew he didn't have to watch the door; Ito was waiting down there and would inform him about everything going on, but he didn't see anything else to do for him. At this point of his plan everything left to do was waiting; it would still take some hours for his next supporters to arrive; at least they had to come by plane.

He closed his eyes for some time, it didn't really matter if he kept them open or closed; they were pretty useless by now, but he still preferred using all his senses, no matter how good they were. _'You could be out there'_ he thought to himself halfhearted. He could kill the time with getting after the last two humans within the building, but he couldn't pull himself up to do it. He had enjoyed the fight against Alice, but as long as she was with this Kato he'd just always get in the way. _'Is that really your only reason?'_ he twitched his mouth. He hadn't killed her simply because he had been too careless and she could escape; nothing else. Next time he'd get the chance he wouldn't let that happen again.

He heard footsteps echoing through the corridor outside and gratefully allowed this noise to pull him away from his doubts. "Conan-kun!" a high voice shrieked and right afterwards his office-door got smashed open so it hit the wall noisily. He turned around and looked at what his other senses told him to be Ayumi… was it only his blurred sight or did she look slightly messy?

"What happened?" he asked and got out of his chair. "_She_ happened!" Ayumi snapped and rushed over to him. Now that she was this close he could see that her hair looked like it had never seen a hairbrush before and she was breathing audible, either of exhaustion or of anger. He smiled amused. "Oh, so you think this is funny?!" she shrieked.

"If you say 'she', do you mean…" he began, trying to get the girl in front of him a little calmer. "Don't act the fool! Your 'she'! She hurt me." His first urge to shout back at her for the way she spoke to him faded when her voice grew whiny. "Hurt? What do you mean by that, you're a cannibal, you can't be hurt."

Ayumi hesitated "I… know. I meant this more metaphorically. She hit me and locked me away in a dressing room. A dressing room! You know what that means? A room full of dirty clothes!" she shivered.

He couldn't help but grin. "How could she do that? Aren't you _a little bit_ stronger than her?"

The girl lowered her head obviously ashamed "it was my first fight… and she caught me by surprise" she mumbled pouting. "And that's not everything!"

Her voice slowly grew acid again. "When I could escape she had done this!" she pointed her finger at the door she'd smashed open.

"No… that was you" he replied but she shook her head "I mean the smell from outside! Don't tell me you don't smell it."

He blinked and walked past the teary cannibal over to the open door. He focused on his sense of smell and slowly he recognized what she was talking about. It was still some corridors away but a cloud of sickening smell made its way through the whole hospital. He twitched his mouth, he knew that smell "disinfectant…?" he mumbled confused.

"Yeah! Or detergent or something! The stink is everywhere, this must have been her!"

He nodded slowly, "I see."

"Really? I don't! Why is she doing this?! Doesn't she know cannibals have a keen nose?"

"I think that is just why she did it" he explained and walked slowly over to the door Ayumi had broken. Carefully he pushed it close and recognized satisfied that the half-broken door still served its purpose; maybe this would exclude the smell for some more time.

When he was done he looked around to Ayumi. The cannibal looked at her reflection in the dark window and tried to smooth her hair – something that seemed to turn out difficult since she could barely see herself. When she recognized him looking at her she turned around with a teary expression in her eyes. "You promised you'd take care of her, but she's still running around, locking people away and spreading a horrible smells."

He avoided the girl's look; he really didn't feel like talking with her about Alice. "Do you remember what you said to me, back then when you rescued me?"

He thought back to the moment in the corridor where he bit her. He looked up to answer and saw her standing directly in front of him, a rare serious look on her face.

"You said that I just wanted the best for my friends _'and when they don't see what the best is, we sometimes need to help them seeing it'_."

He raised an eyebrow, not sure why she mentioned this right now. "I only want the best for you" she added and slowly he understood what she wanted to say. "And the best would be if she would simply vanish."

"I told you I'd take care of that myself" he replied furiously, but Ayumi remained unimpressed by his anger. "I know you say so, but if you're honest to yourself you don't want to."

He hesitated, inwardly he didn't know if she was right, but he also didn't know if he wanted Ayumi to do it. "You don't have to say it if you don't want to" the girl continued and brought her face close to his ear "let's pretend she's already dead; that was what you said to me, too. She's dead because of this Kato, she's gone for so long and you may as well forget about her."

"Ayumi…" he began, but did he really want to tell her to leave it to him again? He still couldn't be sure he'd do it. "It's ok, I know there will be days when you miss her, but I'll always be at your side."

Their cold bodies were standing closely together and he wasn't sure how he'd felt when he'd been able to feel a thing, when a voice cut through the air.

"Get your hands off of my man, filthy cannibal!" The both of them winced and turned around. A small blurry shape behind the window of the door had appeared, a shape with a bow in its hair, and it glared at the both of them. "You" Ayumi growled and without wasting any further time the cannibal-girl rushed over to the door. The shape however must have seen that coming, before Ayumi even reached the door-handle it vanished. Conan saw Ayumi all angry entering the corridor and the sound of fleeing footsteps to her left told her where Alice had run to.

She smirked demonically. "This time I won't be caught in surprise" she turned left and rushed off, leaving Conan back in the office. After some seconds the boy smiled and walked back to his chair where he sat down and just when he turned it around to look at the open door she entered the room from the right. She was dresses in his old suit, only lacking the bow-tie, it seemed like she'd lost it since her hair wasn't tied together. All in all she looked like she had had an exhausting night, but she also looked satisfied.

"Not bad" he admitted and she shrugged. "All it took was a mop with a new haircut and a bow-tie to make a nice silhouette. And of course Kato who is luring Ayumi away right now."

He nodded "I see… it wasn't too difficult for you to make it up to me, right? The smell you spread everywhere in the hospital drowns the smell of human flesh; thanks to our bad eyes the two of you grew nearly invisible for us to see."

Alice nodded and slowly closed the half-broken door while saying "I'd prefer not to waste any further time with talking about Ayumi or Kato" she turned around to him "I didn't come here to chat with you about our supporters."

He raised an eyebrow "what are you here for then?"

For a moment the both of them just looked at each other before she turned around, her eyes finally stopped at a near chair and she sat down, facing him from there like they were two leaders of big companies, discussing further business. "I don't think me calling up on your good side would do me any good, right?"

"Not if you don't want to make me laugh."

She nodded calmly "and I don't think you will care about the fact that your plan is pure madness? The fact that you believe none of the people you want to turn into cannibals will sooner or later sneak a bite of human flesh is ridicules and the fact that the new state of the disease isn't permanent, what will mean everyone will soon turn into the brainless monsters we fought half a year ago?"

He hesitated, not sure if he could believe what she'd just said. "It's still better than being a human" he replied slowly and she nodded again, this time a little disappointed. "I see… well I expected that when I came here. I know talking to you like to the human I once knew is useless and also a fight were I forcefully administer you any antidote wouldn't work…"

He gave her a dry laughter, trying to tell himself that he hadn't lied; he wouldn't go back to be a human. "So if you're not here to talk, neither to fight what are you here _for_? Want to give up?"

She shook her head just as calm as before and he shrugged "and I think it'd be useless for _me _to tell _you_ that it would be a much nicer death if you'd let me do it than if you escape from here and try to involve the police?"

She nodded "yeah, because I'm also not here to tell you I am going to run away."

He leaned back in his chair "then tell me what else it is you want here? No talk, no fight. Neither giving up nor calling up on me nor running away. What else is left for your? Wanna fall to your knees and beg for mercy?"

Now it was her turn and she smiled "back then Kato said that I'm the only person remembering how it feels if a cannibal takes over you, he was right. I know exactly what you are doing to his mind and so I know exactly that you will love to hear this: I want a deal."

* * *

_Please leave a review to help me improve :}_


	21. Standing ovation

**_[Act 21] - ||Standing ovation||_**

_AN: Here it is again :') The main part of my second FF. I could fill the same amount of pages I used for this FF only will all my different versions of this chapter. I re-wrote it sooooooo many times in my mind! Honestly and I changed a whole lot about it, and now… I'm sitting in front of a blank page and dunno which version I'm gonna choose B) Nope, no clue yet. I will just write and re-write and re-write until I'm satisfied and likely it will end up being a mixture of all versions. Hopefully the best one possible ;3 Anyways, there's just one thing I can guarantee by now: serious ecchi ahead *^*Enjoy my dear cannibals :)_

* * *

-Conan-

(H)

It was all silent in the office while the cannibal exchanged glares with the girl in front of him. The words she had just spoken still hung between them.

"A deal." He repeated slowly, like he wanted to make sure she really understood what she had just said.

"Did I catch your interest?" she asked; a kind of satisfaction in her voice that told him she already knew she had indeed. Another moment of silence passed before he slowly continued "What could you offer me? What do you have that could be of any possible interest for me?"

He heard her shaking her head; it was the low sound her hair made while being moved that told him about her actions. "I have nothing of value; especially not while keeping in mind what I ask of you in reward."

He crossed his arms in front of his chest; what was she up to do? "You want me to take the antidote." He explained and this time she nodded. "But you have nothing to give me in reward." She shook her head. "This, likely, is the worst deal I ever heard about."

The girl laughed lowly while getting up from her chair. "I remember the two of us having such a deal before." She unhurriedly walked over to him and continued. "A cannibal promised to take the antidote and a human who had nothing but his own life to donate." He sat up, not sure if she was really offering him what he believed her to be. "What is it what you want to say?" he asked slightly angry about how long she made this take "what do you offer me in reward?" She didn't answer until she stood just a foot away from him. "Me."

A trace of doubt ran over his face before he relaxed it again. He remembered the deal well; a deal he had with the Alice he missed so much. She promised she would take a drink he thought to change her back into a human and in reward she was allowed to eat him. Back then the antidote had failed and he nearly had to deliver his part. Also back in this night she had been the one to offer the deal and back then she'd also dumbfounded him with a single word.

He gave her a dismissive smile "you?" He made his voice sound disparaging, calculating, to hide how much the very idea thrilled him. "You ask me to give up my plans about the _world_ for… you?" He slid to the edge of his seat; she had caught his interest and she had gotten him impatient about how this would continue, but he wouldn't allow her to see that.

"So you're not interested?" she asked, with a voice difficult to analyze. "No offence, but you really had to be uppish to think I would." He ran his eyes over her, would this have been it? Would she give up, or had she expected this? She just nodded.

"Baka me" she mumbled. "Kato told me I'm not good in dealing… _she_ had been better in it." Conan hesitated "don't speak about her like you remember her too well, if you would you wouldn't have allowed him to kill her." Something bitter lay in his voice while he talked about the cannibal-Alice.

He saw the human bite her lip "but I remember her, I really do. I bet she would know what to do, to make you accept my deal…" he watched how she shifted her wait from one foot, obviously busy thinking about a way until she stopped and clapped her hands happily. "Oh I know!" The girl laid her hand on the button of his old suit jacket she wore and fiddled with it "no one buys a car without being allowed to have a look on it, right?"

He blinked while she unbuttoned the jacket and got out of it; afterwards she carefully folded it up and placed it on his desk. "What?!" he got out of his seat like this would stop her but she just continued biting her lip and mumbled "I couldn't expect you to accept the deal without showing you what you'll miss if you refuse" like she was really talking about selling a car to him. He glared at her; his eyes weren't working the way they used to but even to them it was obvious that the tight white shirt was supporting her amenities.

The girl placed her hands on her hips like she was satisfied with her work so far and made him swallow, it wasn't only the fact that he remembered her real body well, the way she stood there wasn't how a child used to stand; she was still the young woman he knew.

"You really think this would change a thing?" he asked, surprised about how he managed it to keep his voice as calm as before. "You can't honestly expect me to take the antidote because you promise me I could sneak a bite of you afterwards. I know I won't want to then!"

She nodded thoughtfully. "You're right, that isn't really fair… then we do it the other way round!" Once again he felt confused when she said "first you eat me and afterwards you take the antidote." And starting to fiddle with the highest button of the white shirt she added "I just trust in your creditability, since I won't be able to check if you keep your part of the deal."

He didn't trust his ears "where's the catch with the deal? Why should you give away your life like that?"

The first time since she'd entered his office he believed to see her really when she looked at him, and not a role she played to keep the distance to him. "I don't know. Maybe you banged my head once too often against a wall… maybe I am scared and desperate and can't stand the pressure anymore… or maybe I just believe this to be worth it. I seriously don't know."

He sighed deeply "well I am sorry, but I have to refuse anyways. Why should I need a deal to kill you? What keeps me away from just tearing you apart?"

She smiled; obviously she had waited for this question. "Nothing, but nevertheless I am still alive, so seemingly you lack some reason to kill me."

He looked at her, curious about why she sounded so much like she knew the one thing he couldn't figure out and seemingly she understood what he felt, because she explained "back then in this night the cannibal-me had you. She had her hand in front of your face and pulled you into the room, remember? Why didn't she just kill you before you could even figure that this wasn't me anymore?"

He saw that this explanation wasn't part of any deal she wanted to sell him, for some reason she needed to tell somebody about this and it seemed to bother her that the first person she talked to about this was him; a cannibal. "Because cannibals, at least the new version, still have some little piece of conscience left, right? APTX4869 allows a part of the human to stay and watch how the monster within takes over. So I know how you feel. Right now your conscience is fighting against instinct."

He looked at her while a little piece of him was understanding that she had spent half a year to figure this out and that this was just why he hadn't killed her by now. "In summary: you need my deal to have a reason to kill me. The conscience will be satisfied, at least I agreed that you can kill me; wasn't that just what you wanted to get from me when you asked me to come out of the stairwell while you doubtlessly had the power to force your way inside? – My permission."

After she had finished her monologue she gave him a short smile, he replied "I have a plan and won't let you get in the way. Maybe you're right, a part of me keeps me from killing you while I'd die to kill you at the same time, but I just have to wait until Ayumi returns; believe me when I say that she has no problem in killing your without any deals."

With a very calm look she took a further step close to him and mumbled "and you're sure you can wait until she returns?"

He knitted his eyebrows and watched her further unbuttoning the shirt. "You see, I admire your power of will. You are a cannibal since a whole week now and haven't killed a person; you didn't even taste human flesh, right?" She innocently tilted her head "of course you infected people by biting them, but that's not the same like really eating them."

He ran his eyes over her, why did his throat suddenly felt all dry? "This must drive you insane… I nearly lost my mind after hours of being infected without flesh and you made it _7 days_; my god!"

"I have my tricks" he replied, his voice worryingly low while his eyes were with her hands, opening button after button. "Hunger can be calmed with raw…" she opened the button in the middle of her chest revealing the dell between her breasts "…meat."

It took him some time to register she'd stopped unbuttoning the shirt because she searched for his look; when he recognized this he looked up at her and she looked at him like he'd said lobster wasn't any better than a cold hot dog. "But that's not the same!" she objected "raw meat may be ok, but human flesh…" she chewed on her lip and it took him some strength not to copy this move of hers, just to imagine how it would be…

"Now that I am human again, of course I feel ashamed about it, but I remember how human flesh is for cannibals. Even the long-dead body pieces I had were… overwhelming." Their eyes met and some moments passed until she looked away to further open the shirt, like she wanted to keep herself distracted from what she was about to admit to him. "They didn't taste like any food I ever ate, not even my most favorite dish could keep up with it because… it has been more than food, it was like a drug and it got me addicted before I actually took a bite."

He felt the thrilling feeling reappear that had entered his body when she'd first mentioned the deal, but by now it had increased, he exactly felt how it got him twitchy and unfocused and the worst thing about it was that he wasn't able to do a thing against it. He couldn't move away from her, but he also knew he couldn't accept her deal.

"One of the things I kept thinking about after I had been cured was… how the cannibal-me would have felt when she had been able to actually eat you. If a half rotten piece of a corpse could mind-blow me like that, what would your flesh have done to me?" She hesitated before she opened the last button, the one above the trousers, but finally she took that last hurdle.

"You think I don't know what you are trying to do, right? But I know it perfectly well" he snapped, for a reason the thrill mixed up with anger. "Then why don't you stop me?" she whispered and closed the distance between them fully. "… You come here and believe I'd allow you to take control, but I'm the one who has more pull!"

She laughed dryly "Shinichi, look at me. I'm literally undressing for a cannibal right here to make it eat me; in how far does that put me in control?"

He grabbed her shoulders roughly, anger further blurring his mind. He needed to scare her, only if it was just a little trace of fear in her eyes to stop this feeling, but he also felt he needed to touch her… just once, if it would be as unsatisfying as touching Ayumi he'd maybe be able to ignore her deal.

Her whole body jerked back and he needed to prevent her from tumbling back under his rough grip that increased on the curt over her shoulders. His body slightly shivered. She felt warm; nearly unpleasantly; against his cold skin and there was still the curt that prevented him from directly touching her.

The thing that really tensed his stomach was that after some time of holding her shoulders a light pounding appeared. Rhythmically her blood pumped through her and he could feel it. All this must have been written on his face because after some time she mumbled "I am ready to give you the chance to find out about how it had felt. Just accept the deal. One word and you can finally stop calming the hunger and satisfy it."

Too late he recognized touching her had been a mistake. "A week without flesh. I can't even imagine how much you want some right now and you still keep refusing me? I'm not going to put up resistance, I promise."

"I won't…" he began but she stepped out of his grip and lightly pushed her body against his; spreading her warmth all around. "Your eyes aren't good, but your other senses are, so… how does it feel?" He had placed his hand at her waist; it would have been so simple to throw her into the next wall.

"I believe the cannibal-me enjoyed the smell most; nothing can be compared to the smell of fresh flesh and rushing blood" her breath stroked against his numb neck while she spoke. The girl got up on her tiptoes and hugged her arms around him. The shirt had slightly slid off of her shoulder what brought his face directly to her bare skin.

With wide eyes he felt the smell she'd mentioned surrounding him while her heart loudly kept pumping her blood around in her body. "Do it" she mumbled and her hug around him increased, like she was searching for something to hold onto when the pain would pierce her. "Just do it and take the antidote afterwards and I will be ok!"

At this moment the human half had vanished, maybe because what waited beyond it had held back for 7 days now, or maybe because the fear which made her cling to him further thrilled him, this way or another she had gotten into a place behind the surface and he couldn't help her in this place. He pressed his face against her skin and opened his mouth slowly.

"Deal" she whispered.

* * *

-Alice-

She hugged herself to him and closed her eyes. This was disgusting! The whole situation made her feel nothing more than disgust towards herself. She had presented herself to him like… a piece of meat! And the whole time she couldn't help but being aware that she was luring him to do something he didn't wanted. And still… what did she feel her heart racing? Why did such a warmth spread in her lower stomach? She increased her hug; she couldn't help but feeling thrilled, even though this body couldn't have felt less like her Shinichi. It was cold and shivering because it actually wanted to hurt her and she still clung to it, because he was the only one with her. When his teeth would thrust into her she knew she'd hug herself even closer to him and imagine it would be Shinichi.

Only why did he make it take that long? Why couldn't he finally get it done? Behind his back her right hand increased its grip around the injection. His bad eyes together with the fact that he really seemed to long for flesh had somehow drawn his attention from the fact that she had an ace up her sleeve; literally spoken. She had the injection with the red liquid hidden in the sleeve of his shirt she wore; its cover removed so everything would go fast.

After she had hugged him everything she needed to do was letting the injection slide into her hand and wait for his first bite. She couldn't do it before he actually bit her; the risk that he could fight her off before she made it, was too high. But when his teeth would be inside of her she knew he would be too distracted to recognize her pushing the needle into his flesh.

She felt his mouth opening, slowly, like he was still fighting it and she closed her eyes tightly, raising the injection with her thumb above its plunger. "Deal" she whispered and tensed her arm to push the needle into his back when a power; this strong and straightforward that she couldn't help but scream out loud; ripped her away from him and smashed her to the floor.

Even though her mind felt like drifting after hitting the floor and her whole body seemed to ache, her hand hadn't lost hold of the injection; not this time. She opened her eyes and saw nothing but flashing lights exploding in front of her. "You!" A voice growled she had never heard before.

Alice blinked several times until her eyes allowed her to see the ceiling of the office. "Dirty piece of meat!" the tone of the voice was hating, it was shivering in anger and Alice was sure, though she had never heard a voice this murderous, that the speaker was about to kill her. Slowly, with every part of her body burning, she sat up and still didn't understand what she was seeing in front of her. Conan had slumped down in his chair like he had used up the last rest of his power and in front of him a girl was standing, so obviously a cannibal that it took Alice a lot of time to understand she was looking at Ayumi.

The girl was breathing heavily, her body shaking in anger and her eyes were glaring hating at Alice to her feet. "You sneak in here" she hissed "you tempt him" Alice tried to back off but she was still half lying on the floor "and then you try to kill him from behind!" It was the way that Ayumi wasn't screaming but hissing that told Alice about how furious the cannibal was. "I will make you pay for that!"

Ayumi grabbed Alice's neck before she could answer anything and slammed her onto the mahogany desk next to Conan's chair and Alice cried out. The girl hopped onto Alice and dug her knees into her pelvis what made Alice gasp in agony. "I don't have much knowledge about torture, but even I know that it doesn't necessarily kill you if I open up your ribcage to mess around in your guts!" Alice shook her head, unable to speak, but Ayumi slapped her in the face "stop this" she growled and grabbed her neck to stop her from moving.

Alice reached for Ayumi's arm with her free hand but couldn't soften the cannibal's grip. "Don't worry. I won't strangle you, but be sure that you'll wish I had, when I'm done with you!"

Alice eyes ran around the room, she needed something to protect herself with, but what? Her gaze stopped for a second at the injection, ran over to Ayumi and her arm at Alice's throat. It wouldn't be impossible administering it to her and rescuing her life…

Her eyes jumped to her right, to the chair Conan had collapsed on and the grip around the antidote softened. She wouldn't use it on Ayumi; she was just an infected person, this wouldn't help the others.

"Why do you hesitate?" Ayumi asked, obviously she had followed Alice eyes. "Isn't that what you want? Kill as many of us a possible? Get me away from him?! Go on, why don't you try administering it to me?"

"Where did you find it?" a low voice asked and both girls froze. "Conan" Ayumi's voice changed from murderous anger to loving care all of a sudden. "Take a rest, I will take care of this" Ayumi's eyes were back with Alice but Conan had gotten himself out of the chair and coldly looked at Alice – who just couldn't find the man that meant so much to her when she looked into this face. "The antidote, where did you find it? Mitsuhiko told me in the office you locked him away in were only remnants of a broken injection, so where did you find it?"

Alice opened her mouth but Ayumi was still choking off her neck. It took a long icy glare from Conan until she removed her hands so Alice replied "I found it in the corridor in floor 2..."

"You found it?" he asked and she hesitated.

"It… is the antidote Kato tried to administer me. We all thought he succeeded, but instead he just broke off its needle from the body of the injection before the antidote could enter my body… everything I did was decanting it into an undamaged injection…"

He looked at her with a glare she couldn't read before he calmly said "Ayumi get her off of the table."

Ayumi's face dropped, she opened her mouth to answer but he just snapped "now!" and the girl did as she'd been told. Roughly she pushed Alice down onto the floor which she hit painfully and was right back at her site to pull her up to her feet. The only thing the cannibal-girl took care of was that Alice's shirt did not reveal anything that Conan could possible see. Alice fear only increased when she saw Conan smiling, something told her the past happening had erased another big part of the real-him. "I knew it" he beamed madly "I knew you wouldn't let anyone kill you that easy."

Alice stomach twisted, he was neither talking to her, nor to Ayumi. "What do you mean?" Ayumi asked, lowly like she was as scared as Alice. "Don't you get it? If we have the antidote, Kato tried to administer to Alice, right here" he took the injection out of Alice's hand. The girl made an angry sound and tried to get it back but Ayumi roughly pulled her back. "Then she had never been 'healed'! We can still help her; she can be a cannibal again."

"NO!" both girls shouted. He looked at them, angry about their ignorance. "It's just…" Ayumi began, hesitantly and finally continued "she is right, we haven't had any meat, yet. I mean, this way or that the change will take some victims and she… no one would ever find out about it" with an insidious tone.

"Don't be ridicules! We're not like this; we aren't just carnivores."

"Not yet, maybe" Alice interrupted the two of them, a fear in the back of her head that either one would hurt her again; she doubted she could stand much more injuries. But when Conan's look turned slightly asking she dared to add "I told you! This state of the disease isn't permanent, sooner than later it will reduce you to such carnivores. Those feelings you had while thinking about my flesh will grow and grow and erase anything else, please!"

She leaned as forward as much as Ayumi allowed her to "please don't let that happen!"

He glanced at her for a moment and she tried to remember how it was looking at the real-him. Finally he moved; he reached out his hand and forcefully pushed her out of Ayumi's grip and into a close wall. She gasped in pain "remember all the times in your life you were hurt and now imagine how many times still lie in front of you. I will safe you form that."

She shook her head and tried to reply something – something smart that would help him understand but her throat had gone numb. He softened his grip and she felt her legs slightly giving in and she stumbled forward right into his arms. This last attack had taken any possible remnant of stamina. "See?" he asked angrily satisfied "it'll stop."

She tried to get away from him but he had already forces his face to her bare shoulder; this time he didn't need any permission since he wasn't going to kill her – her deal had become useless. She screamed when his teeth entered her flesh. This was nothing compared to the pain she had felt when Kobayashi-sensei had lightly injured her, back then in the school. He had dug those razor sharp teeth deep into her and she felt her ears going deaf when he let go off of her. She wasn't able to keep balance so couldn't help but lying in his arms what shook her body further. "Get her into a room to change in private" Conan's far away voice ordered and Alice felt his surprisingly careful hold giving way to Ayumi's gruff grip.

* * *

-Ayumi-

She held that shivering pile of meat in her arms and glared from it over to Conan and back to it. She couldn't do anything about this now, he had made his decision and she couldn't challenge it. "Ayumi…chan" to her very disgust the pile of meat spoke to her, half conscious it looked at her and twisted the cannibal-girls stomach. "Kill me."

Ayumi blinked what had it said?! "Please. Kill me now; as long as I'm still mortal." Shocked she recognized its shaking hand reaching for her sleeve and grabbing it weakly. "Don't let me become one of you, please" she tried to stand up, tipsy on her legs she turned to Conan. "Don't let this _thing_ enter my mind again! Please just quicken my end, but don't leave me alone with it" Conan frowned and Ayumi saw Alice's legs giving in. "You want to see me on my knees? Begging? Fine here I am and I beg for mercy, kill me."

"Bring her into treating room 3302." Ayumi looked up at Conan who turned away with an emotionless look. She hadn't expected him to stay this calm… even she felt some sort of pity for this Alice begging for her death, but again she knew she couldn't challenge his decision and she dragged the girl in room 3302, where she locked her away. "Noo! Kill me instead! Please someone, nooo!"

* * *

_Please leave a review to help me improve :}_


	22. Encore

**_[Act 22] - ||Encore||_**

_Maybe you recognized that CL 2 had, compared to CL 1, less blood and gore in it. With this sequel I wanted to focus more on psycho-horror than gore-horror and I hope you liked it, too :) Anyways, it's time to welcome an old friend of ours; did ya miss Cannibal-Alice? :}_

* * *

-Alice-

She had collapsed somewhere at a wall. Unable or just not bothering to lie down on the near pitch. Her breathes came out in short jerks and every time she inhaled some of the life-giving air the part of her body where he bit her screamed in pain.

'_He bit me'_ would maybe have been something to cross her mind, if there had been a proper mind. She breathed again and shook in pain; nothing else. No try to raise her hand to cover the heavily bleeding wound, no shifting glare around in the darkness and no tries to escape. Her body was sleeping its exhausted sleep, but in her head the thoughts were buzzing around each other - Thoughts of different versions of herself; some soothing, some highly disturbing and no one matching the other one, while they started to melt into each other.

_Fight it!_ It was an old; the oldest; thought that bounced around in her, remaining ignored. She was tired of fighting - she had always been fighting; ever since her parents tried to turn her into a member of the black organization.

_Wrong. They didn't turn you; you were born to be a monster like them. Somehow you just made it, to suppress it until now…_

It was impossible to tell which part of herself was chirping this, especially since there was no piece of her left to think about this. She was broken, shattered, into fragments that tried to get back together to one personality that somehow was able to act.

_I'm tired._

There was still her memory. A clear piece of information the fragments seemed to discuss about. _**I planned to safe him! **_Some part shouted and a trace of life flitted over her face and vanished right away. _He's a cannibal. He's happy. Let him be._

What exactly had destroyed her? Hadn't she felt fear before? And panic and desperation? For some reason the past happening had hurt her deeper… in a way it had just hit a rated break point and the cracks had spread over her personality.

_A rated break point. Think about it. Rated. By whom? By our parents. Hadn't they waited for us to get to a point where we would be helpless?_

The girl closed her eyes. _I'm tired._

Her head ached; it needed this to stop soon. _**But we had a plan!**_

_Naïve!_

_It had to fail!_

_I'm tired._

_I want… to see him again._

A corner of her, that somehow… uninvolved… was aware of her feelings, like headache and pain – this part recognized the blood from her wound running down her shoulder to her chest.

_I want to see him again._

The thought was small but it kept buzzing. It was new, glooming with the energy of a child; but this piece also was as careless as a child – ready to do whatever possible to survive. _I _need_ to see him again._

_We had a __**plan! **_The loud buzz nearly blew her head apart, but it was there – at least some part of structure was there while it got the other pieces out of its way.

_We can only be what our parents made us… why shouldn't we? Isn't it strong?_

The girl's lips crossed to a hazy smile, while the pieces went together; the same pieces as before, just in a new order.

_**My plan**__, I mustn't forget about it!_

_I won't, I have been taught how to carry out my plans._

_I _will_ see him again._

The girl smiled and slowly got up from the ground.

* * *

-Ayumi-

Her screaming took awfully long until it faded and Ayumi waited even longer until a light knocking against the door appeared. Shyly she turned around to the door; again a light knocking was audible from within.

"A… Alice?" she mumbled.

"Who else?" the voice repeated coldly and left Ayumi insecure what she should do now. "Open this goddamn door idiot." Ayumi trust forward and unlocked the treating room. Slowly a woman walked out of it and Ayumi couldn't help but describe her as such, though she couldn't possibly be older than her; this doubtlessly was Alice just that her expression had worryingly changed. Her hair fell around her expressionless face and onto her shoulders that were covered in an opened white shirt the woman started to button up. One of her shoulders was drenched in blood from where Conan had bitten her, not that she seemed to bother about it bleeding.

"What's that smell?" she mumbled nauseated twitching her nose. "The… detergent you spread" Ayumi replied slowly and saw the woman nodding. "I don't remember it to be this strong… It's disinfectant by the way honey." And she walked past Ayumi leaving the girl back with an expression of confusion on her face.

"Wh… where are you going?!" she called after her and saw the woman stopping, slowly she turned around and showed her an evil smile "there's someone waiting for me, you see?"

* * *

-Conan-

(H)

The cannibal sat in his chair and knocked his fingers impatiently on the mahogany desk. She would be alright.

… Sure, she would, why shouldn't she? He chewed his lip. She would be the same person like she had been.

… Sure she would, why shouldn't she? There should be no change of character just because this was her second time out. In his ears her miserable screams kept echoing, but he had done the right.

…Sure, he had. And she would know it. If she would just hurry up! He rubbed his head; he had been willing to sacrifice everything to see her again; even becoming one of those dumb monsters. Unwillingly he remembered what the human-Alice had told him, how she had tried to lure him into a fate that would mean his death after what? 80, 90 years at the most. And how she had woken up something within him he hadn't known about before. His throat suddenly felt slightly dry again; shortly he ran his tongue over his lips. He could still taste her blood in his mouth.

"You liked it?"

He winced and looked up. He didn't need his eyes to tell she was back. The girl with the brown hair leaned against his doorframe and watched him (likely since some seconds now) and smiled playfully. "Somehow." He smiled back, still not able to believe it fully.

She shrugged "I feared you'd drink me up rather than infecting me."

"You minded?"

She shook her head "no, not at all." After a moment of looking at her he heard her voice again "my entry had been a lot more awesome if I didn't have to wear this battered thing" she complained slightly smoothing the white shirt. "… What do you have against suits?" he mumbled offended and she smirked "nah, that's not it. They suit you, but don't tell me you wouldn't rather see me in a long black dress?"

Smiling Conan rolled the armchair slightly away from the desk and allowed her to walk over to him. She took her time like she wanted to give him some time to imagine her wearing such a dress and caused him to smile even wider. He remembered this attitude of hers well, coldly and dismissive against everyone but she allowed him to see the other side of her. He stood up and touched her, inspecting the wound on her shoulder that was still bleeding; she accepted it without any reaction to possible pain.

"Now you've got me" she caught his look and replied it happily. "Finally you have me back."

"I hope it didn't cause you too much trouble" she added and grinned sarcastically, he just shrugged "somehow she knew it would end like this. All this whining that we should kill her wasn't what she really felt… or you" he added, not sure in how far cannibals were still the same persons as they had been before. "Yeah" Alice answered moony like it bored her talking about the past and he understood that.

"Never mind, now you are here; that's what matters." He laid his hand on her cold cheek and pulled her into a kiss she slowly replied like she wasn't fully used to using her body. If only he hadn't ordered Ayumi to make her change in room 3302; it had already been soaked with the smell of the disinfectant and so it also clung to her; drowning any possible smell.

She got away from him after some moments and replied to his confused look "gomen, I'm slightly outta practice with this body." He smiled understanding "she's putting up resistance? Don't worry, this stops after some hours" remembering his own inner fight nearly a week ago. She nodded and allowed him to pull her back into the kiss that made his stomach twitch in anticipation while his mind clouded at the same time.

He slid on hand onto her waist and recognized her slightly shifting under his touch, causing his mind to sink deeper into a slack state of bliss while his body felt more and more like burning. It was an addictive feeling, compared to what he believed could also be caused by…

With all strength he could put up he pushed her away from him like something venomous. While he tried to calm his breath and get his shivering body back under control he threw a murderous glare at Alice who had collapsed under the window of his office. "You are the limit" he growled and closed up on her.

It was a feeling of mesmerizing hunger her taste had caused him and he knew this was nothing a cannibal's taste could do him; she was still a human – mortal and waiting for his bite.

He saw the brown-haired slowly getting up again, blood running out of her mouth and down her lips that curled into a cracky smile. Obviously she suffered from the pain his last attack had caused her, but she wasn't reacting to it the way she used to. She glared up at him and he knitted his eyebrows. This wasn't his cannibal-Alice, but neither this was the Alice he knew looking at him. Her eyes were glued to his; still; but somewhere deep behind them he saw a motion he'd just seen some times before.

"Too bad" the girl sneered, still prompting herself up on her knees and hands. "I hoped you'd buy my show and I could get close enough to administer you the antidote again."

"Who are you…" he mumbled. He couldn't tell why she acted like this. Why did she tell him what she had planned and that she had fail, while she sounded this… optimistic at the same time? "Idiot" she replied and slowly got up to her feet "who I've always been."

They locked eyes and she continued "neither you nor me changed _who_ we are. We just readjusted it slightly."

She whipped away some of the blood off her face and mumbled "so the proper question is: _how_ are you?"

He scanned her. Poor girl, she had gone mad. He knew Alice; she had always had an unsteady mind. Small things like jealousy, fear or desperation were enough to shake it – the worst cases of these emotions even shattered it and this was what he saw in front of him. She was a pile of bricks – a house that lacked cement; rebuilding itself when destroyed and one could never know as what it went together again. He smirked widely "this is interesting."

His anger about losing the cannibal-Alice wasn't forgotten, but when she was like that he couldn't have had the revenge he wanted; she was insane, she wouldn't mind him killing her, no matter how cruel he would do it. "I can recall the memory of _how_ I have been before… you went mad several times, but I rarely had the delight to see it while being _how_ I am now. Two mad people finally meeting."

"Foolish boy" she replied coldly and dismissively "don't compare me to you. You are ill – your mind is affected by a chemical, I, however…"

"just lost your mind" he completed still smirking and the girl in front of him allowed her lips to smile, too "yeah."

"The question now is: what will you do, mad as you are, against me?" She didn't answer; instead she had slid her hand into one of the pockets of her trousers and tried to get something out. "No…" she mumbled moony "the question is: will I be to blame for what I'm going to do?"

With a wide smirk the girl got her hand out of the pocket again and thrust over to him. A thin silver tool sparkling in the moonlight was everything the cannibal recognized before he dodged her attack.

He turned around and had to dodge again, he was aware that nothing she would do would really hurt him, but he minded just waiting for her attack when he wasn't sure what she was attacking him with. "Stay put" she ordered while she head for a further attack and he had to laugh at her calm tone before dodging again; if only his eyes were some better.

The girl's moves were adept and several times he felt a drift of air against his numb skin before he scantly managed to escape her silver tool once again. Finally he was tired of this dance, he stopped and instantly she pierced her tool into his arm. Unaware of any possible pain he tightly grabbed her shoulders and jammed her aback into the next wall. "Enough already" he decided like he had a coltish child in front of him and pulled out whatever she had jabbed into his arm while he kept her pressed against the wall with one hand.

"A scalpel…?" he wondered and looked interested at the thin knife in his hand that was dipped in his blood. "We're in a hospital" the girl explained breathily since he decided to hold her in place by clenching her neck. "And what did you hope to use this for?" he asked already bored of what he held in his hand so he looked at her instead. "I am immortal, remember?"

"Dimly" she nodded as much as she could under his grip "I hoped I could get you immobilized, for easier medication, you see?" He couldn't help but smile "how fickle you are. Sometimes you want to rescue me, then you want to eat me, now you wanted to cut me into pieces."

"I always want to rescue you" she said and when he looked at her he wasn't sure in how far the madness he saw distinguished itself from the hope to look at the human-him he'd seen in her eyes before.

"That's what you say" satisfied he recognized her look turning surprised "you say you want to get _your_ Shinichi back, because it's the best for me… in reality you just want to get rid of me, the current me, because you like me."

The surprised look gave way to a dark one "I don't _like_ you" she nearly spat it out "don't imagine for one _second_ that there is any sympathy within me for the cannibal-you. I hate you! You are selfish, evil and cruel."

He smirked, how he loved to see her lying to herself. "Yes I am, and this is exactly why you like me. You've always been fascinated by the evil." There it was again, this little trace of doubt that crossed her face and faded again – he knew her and it was a piece of cake to mess with her mind. "You grew up next to people purely evil; it's just natural that you keep searching for this darkness. You love having something bad next to you, right?" he had stepped close to her and enjoyed fear mixing with the madness in her eyes; this was his revenge for her taking away _his_ Alice.

"So don't tell me _no_ part of you did feel exited when it understood what happened to me; don't tell me _no_ part of you enjoyed the kiss we just shared and **don't**tell me _no_ part of you wants to have someone entirely evil at your side."

Her body was shivering while she was keeping quiet; he continued; bringing his mouth close to her ear. Her presence was now no problem to him anymore – not as long as he could toy with her like that. "Here it is; this darkness you waited for and I'm right at your side, ready to spend my life with you. You get the chance to see this other side of me and just _imagine_ what this side could do to you. All the mess, the pain and the torture; physically and mentally; it _thrills_ you, doesn't it? Don't you _want_ it?"

He smirked while her heat kept racing against his chest. "I want…to rescue you."

His eyes widened and he got away from her, just slightly, so he could see her face. It was as drained as he'd imagined it, so why did her voice sound this calm? "You are right. A part of me feels a… thrill, when it's close to something evil, but luckily this part is quiet small." He twitched his mouth "isn't this enough?"

She smiled, just lightly, but it was just as caring as he knew it "idiot, no it isn't. Because not even this small part… would chose you. Even this part wants to get Shinichi back, because nothing – not even the purest spark of evil – thrills me as much as the knowledge that someone as good as him… as you; endures my presence."

"Liar" he tried but she shook her head, her look brightening up "no, it's not even a lie. I have this weak spot for darkness because I will never understand it. Someone harming others for his own pleasure… it's a mystery to me and the thrill you see in me when I'm next to something entirely bad than it's because I'd love to analyze it, even if I fall victim to it. Luckily the pure good is also a mystery to me; not less thrilling."

They locked eyes again and the darker his look grew the brighter went hers "so please give me Shinichi back, I mean… look at me; what I've become without this 'good' around."

"How boring you can be" he mumbled "you were more fun when you tried to cut me."

"I just wanted to rescue you" she shrugged excusing "just my ways to achieve my aim have changed; at this point, I'm afraid, we _are_ the same."  
"What's the right way, I wonder" he mumbled and raised the scalpel in front of her eyes "Sanity? Insanity? Cannibalism? Mind me cutting?" He changed the issued fast while he brought the razor down to her face, just millimeters away from her eye.

"Humanity" her answer was short but calm, nothing told him about a possible fear in her mind "because… you kinda find the other ways in it."

"And then you die" he replied and attached the scalpel now to her neck, just at the dale between her collarbones where the skin was thin enough to show the laboring air tube underneath. "Yeah, but meanwhile you _live_."

He hesitated and looked up at her again "there it goes" he mumbled and glared into those brown eyes "the madness has already abandoned you; now there's only you against me again."

She blinked and he saw that she just recognized he was right "welcome back Alice" he smiled dryly "you just made it in time for your own death." Now that she was sane enough again he could finally get his proper revenge – he wouldn't forgive her pretending to be _his_ Alice.

* * *

-Alice-

He was right; she knew she was back because she started to wonder what on earth had driven her this far. She knew she had decided to use a lie to make him bite her and believe she was a cannibal again, but when he'd actually dug his teeth into her she had lost grip.

Now she knew she had no time to be angry about being easily broken, at least she was just as easy pieced together again. It was his presence; also before when she had lost grip of herself he had somehow known how to bring her back; she wasn't sure the cannibal-him had done it on purpose though. "You don't want that, Shinichi" she began; he interrupted her "shut up." He growled not moving the slightest but she starring at her.

Slowly she came to the conclusion that the cannibal-him had preferred talking to her mad side rather than her 'sane' side. "Now that you have your precious mind back tell me: why are you here?! Why you instead of her?"

Roughly he inspected her wound again and this time she couldn't help but moan in pain. "It's deep enough! It's bleeding! So why aren't you infected?!" She replied his furious glare as obstinately as she could and finally he let go. He turned around to his desk and ripped one drawer open. With the injection full of red liquid he approached again and pushed her against the wall; everything about his attitude resembling a hungry animal. "If you're protected by the antidote what is this than?! Don't tell me you had risked your life to administer me a fake?!"

She remained silent, knowing that this was her last trump – reveling this knowledge to him would make her completely uninteresting; this would mean he'd kill her.

Angrily he grabbed her shoulder and pulled her away from the wall and made her walk backwards over to his door. "You better talk girl. I have a bunch of hungry cannibals out there who are dying for a piece of meat." She looked at him, worried but determined and he brought his face close to hers. "No one's going to rescue you! Who do you think would come when the only person that kept saving your worthless life is standing _right in front of you_?! The police who isn't informed?! Kato who Ayumi took care of?! Oh and by the way, Ayumi is doing great fighting when she's angry and finds an old man instead of the girl she hated so much."

"Kato's not dead" Alice replied slowly.

"No, not yet. I thought since he also took the antidote I could allow the others to get a little snack. For now he's just unconsciously lying in a room somewhere."

"Opposite to this room?" She mumbled, her eyes glued to a big shadow slowly standing up in a room she saw through the window in Conan's back. He hesitated about how she knew it but shrugged "when he is waking up you'll already be dead."

Alice kept glaring at the shadow. After it seemingly had regain balance it seemed to raise something small, something reflecting the moonlight. Something that was pointed straight at Conan's head.

"NO!" Alice thrust forward and (using all her power) she pushed the surprised Conan away from the window, a second later a screaming shot cut through the night and the glass of the windows between the two rooms broke.

Alice looked around; Conan was lying on the floor; aback; staring at her. She felt eased when she recognized he wasn't hurt – this feeling faded as soon as he gave her a half dry and half shocked smile. "Idiot" he mumbled "it wouldn't have killed _me_."

Slightly confused Alice recognized a warm feeling on her belly, like some sort of warm, thick liquid was dripping down her body. Slowly she touched the growing red circle on the white shirt she wore and raised her hand to inspect the liquid. Just now her legs gave in and through the shock her body slowly made her feel the burning pain of the bullet that pierced her.

* * *

-Conan-

He hit the floor aback, her attack had surprised him; he hadn't expected her to do something this useless and only when he looked up at her again, standing in the dim light of the moon, blood slowly soaking through her shirt he understood what she had done – though he couldn't fully figure _why_ she had done it.

It took her some time to recognize her injury herself before she sunk to her knees and then to lean back against the wall below the window. While she had fallen down to the floor he got up again and looked at her from above. Her face had lost the last bit of color and her eyes had become worryingly glassy. "Idiot" he repeated and scanned how the reddish liquid left her body fast. "Did you really need a way out _this badly_ that you take a bullet for me? Don't you know that bleeding to death is no nice way of dying?"

"If it had hit you… you'd die while taking the antidote" she explained breathily and as he opened his mouth to answer she mumbled "just shut up now, ok?"

He blinked and saw her slowly rolling onto her side like she tried to find a position less painful. "If you stop talking and moving just for a moment I could maybe imagine…" she squinted her glassy eyes like they were going blind and added that low that he could barely hear her "I could imagine the last person I saw last was my Shi… ni…"

The room fell silent and the cannibal watched the red puddle beyond the girl cruelly pullulating, unaware of how much it was needed inside the pale body it left. He was just about to walk a step closer to her, to inspect how much life was left within her, when he felt it again. He grabbed the desk like he needed a support. Once again the feeling spread within him – his mind slowly blurred while his body grew twitchy. It was the feeling Alice had described as addictive; like a drug.

It was the feeling he had felt while she tried to make him bite her and it was the feeling that had told him she was still no cannibal. It was hunger. It drowned the logical part in him and boosted the pure-cannibal part. This feeling was nothing he enjoyed, he couldn't concentrate, he couldn't think properly and when he understood what caused it this time, he was barely able to hold back.

The smell of her blood had fulfilled the whole office and raised his hunger to a whole new level. He increased his grip on the table that cracked beyond his hand. He felt like a cloud of this smell smothering him and the only thing that prevented him from tearing the body in front of him apart was his grip on the desk. He knew as soon as he'd let go he wouldn't be able to control it, maybe never again.

He glared at the motionless shape of Alice, barely breathing but still this breath echoed in his head and so did the pounding of her heart that was about to give up, both further boosting the cannibal inside. This hadn't been what he wanted. He didn't want her to die… not like that and he didn't want to feed on what was left of her; something that grew more and more difficult to prevent with every second that passed by.

He looked away from her, stepped back, trying to block out the noise her body made while slowly passing on to death, but he couldn't use his hands to cover his ears as long as he needed one to hold onto the desk – not that he believed it would help him the slightest. His feet met a little resistance while stepping back and when he looked down to the ground he saw a thin injection rolling over the floor; its red liquid swashing around.

Fretfully he ran his eyes to Alice's body and back to the injection. He didn't want her to die… not like that and he didn't want to feed on what was left of her. This knowledge was the only thing his numb mind could come up with.

Finally he cursed. He grabbed the injection to his feet and pulled back his sleeve. He knew he had to be fast, before he would lose control, but his hand hesitated with the thin transparent needle right above his skin. "Idiot" he growled and pushed the injection into his arm, pressing down the plunger. The liquid got pushed out of the injections body right into his veins.

To his surprise he felt a pain spreading right from the puncture before he'd even removed the needle. The pain was cold, like pure ice getting pumped through his whole body. He held his shivering arm with the one that still felt pleasantly numb and painless while the pain reached his chest and his heart. He pressed his hands against his front while the agony forced him to his knees. He coughed when it reached his lungs making him feel like he was about to suffocate. He tightly closed his eyes before he shakily got up to his feet again. Though the pain kept increasing it had also cleared his mind. Slowly he walked over to Alice's body, ignoring the puddle of blood beyond his feet and raised her body up.

* * *

_Please leave a review to help me improve :}_


	23. Close the curtain

**_[Act 23] - ||Close the curtain||_**

_We are nearly done =) Yep. This is pretty sad to me, since I don't know if I'll ever write a further cannibal-FF, but it is also great :33 I enjoyed writing every single part of the 2 cannibal fics and of course I won't stop writing FFs at all ;) Anyways, it's still too early to shed sore tears of good-bye, since there is still a lot stuff to be told =) Thanks for reading CL until here x3 Can't wait to eat all of you in reward :*_

* * *

-Conan-

He hadn't made it very far until the pain outran every acuteness of mind, so when Conan slowly opened his eyes again he had no memory of how he had come here, nor what had happened after this alter-ego of his had tried to safe Alice. The only thing he knew was that sometime after taking the antidote he had blacked out, though he couldn't even remember that. The last memory he could recall was how he ran through the hospital carrying Alice.

Conan blinked but couldn't hold his eyes open for much longer than seconds. He felt sore. His whole body told him he had asked too much of it; he was exhausted and tired but couldn't sink back into sleep – he needed to move. His back ached and he knew he hadn't moved in quite some time. Slowly he tried to roll onto his side; obviously he was lying in some sort of bed.

What he planned to be a simple move to his side turned out to be a very painful try to move an arm, every muscle he tensed started to burn in pain. He gave up on rolling to his side and remained in a position somewhere between lying on his back and lying on his arm (which wasn't really comfortable) and tried simply to tilt his head to find out where he was.

He had been right; he was lying in a bed, a white one, in a small room that was nearly all dark. A little light came through the gap under the door; there was also another light coming from his left. He tilted his head a little more, causing him to clench his teeth, and looked at some monitors dipping the room into a digital green light.

'_I'm in a hospital'_ he pondered and felt his stomach tensing. He hadn't made it out! This would mean Alice would lie somewhere here… with all this loss of blood, would she still be alive or had she died?! He tried to roll to his side once again and finally, ignoring his screaming muscles, he made it – Conan winced.

On a wooden chair next to his bed a little girl sat, her bare legs pulled up onto the chair. It took him some time to understand what he was seeing there; it looked too surreal to be true, of that he was sure. Alice was sitting on a typical visitor's-chair, wearing a short black skirt and a blue sweater; illuminated by the flickering green monitors, looking seemingly at something some inches above and behind Conan. Her eyes were moving slightly and her mouth was forming words without making a sound while her hands were holding some kind of small thing on her lap; her left hand half hidden inside of this thing – a book.

Conan knew this had to be a dream, a hallucination or anything like that. Seconds ago she was suffering from a bullet in her stomach and now she sat there, obviously lost in thoughts while she tried not to lose the page in a book. The slight movement of her eyes froze when it had run over his face, her gaze seemed to come back from somewhere far and suddenly focus on him. Her eyes widened.

"Shinichi?" she asked sitting up and glaring at him. He wasn't sure what he should answer, so he simply mumbled "hey."

His word caused a huge reaction with the girl. She got up from her chair with wide eyes that were scanning him, searching for a sign of… what? The only thing that surprised him was how carefully she made sure to lay the book onto the chair before she rushed the few steps up to him. "Shinichi" she gasped this time and he tried to sit up in the bed to meet her on eyelevel; he only made it to get his left arm under his body so he lay some higher.

"Daijoobu?" she asked and kept scanning him; he nodded though even this movement of his neck hurt him. "Of course you're not" she mumbled, ignoring his answer and raised a hand like she wanted to touch him but lowered it hesitantly again. "Thank God, you got me really scared!" She tried a smile and added "do… you know what happened?"

He knitted his eyebrows while the events of the past week ran through his memory again "yeah" he replied with a dry throat that had nothing to do with the pain he felt. Alice's look turned sad "sorry to hear that" she mumbled and slowly sat down on the ground next to his bed so they could directly look at each other. "You thought I could forget it?" he asked and gave her a doubtful look. Alice didn't answer right away; she took some seconds until she shrugged "no. I knew you would remember, but I hoped you wouldn't though… damn APTX."

He didn't ask her why she hoped he would have forgotten; he knew she hoped he could live on without this memory and so did he. Slowly he understood that what he remembered really had happened. "What would you have said, if I wouldn't remember?" he asked and she replied in a secure manner that told him she had practiced her story well "We were in BCH remember? They seemingly had a gas leak and we fell unconscious before we made it out." He blinked, surprised about her straight forward lie. "And you think I would have believed that?"

"Wouldn't you?" she asked, slightly lowering her head and now that he thought about it, he saw no real reason in doubting her… if the whole past week had been erased from his memory he would see no reason for suspecting her to lie. "Did you come up with this?" he asked and she shook her head. "No, it is what the police decided to tell the public… looks like they really want to keep the cannibal disease a secret around here; to prevent it from being misused, you see?"

He looked at Alice who sat on the ground, seemingly waiting for him to ask anything further he possibly wanted to know; he just felt the urge to apologize.

"What happened to the kids?! What is about Ai and the other people…" he wanted to say _'that I infected'_ but he couldn't. "They are fine" Alice explained, understanding what he meant. "Ito, Sekai and this trainee don't remember a thing, and so do the kids. They have been told the thing with the gas leak. Ai… she remembers everything until the disease changed and got past APTX. She says she forgot this bit of the night and maybe this is just for the best… it had turned her into a full cannibal. – Anyways everyone is fine by now, you were the last…" she broke off and looked away onto the monitors though he was sure she didn't really read them. He clenched his hands to fists; he needed to let her know he hadn't wanted anything of that to happen and that he would do everything to erase this memory for the both of them.

"Are we still in BCH?" he mumbled, angry about himself. "No" she pulled her legs close to her chest and wrapped her arms around them; the way she easily did this told him this wasn't the first time she sat like this next to him. "This is the New Beika Infirmary; BCH is closed for now, and I doubt it will open ever again."

"How long have I been… unconscious?" he asked and Alice looked at him again. "Around 2 days. It's 3:38 a.m. by the way and this is the intensive care unit of the hospital."

He nodded to show her he had understood. He had done anything to be able to roll over and pretend he needed some sleep. He couldn't stand her look right now. Was she scared of him? Or was she just worried about him being ok? He couldn't even decide which would be worse.

"Lil" he began "I'm…"

She shook her head calmly "don't."

"But, I…"

"Please don't" she mumbled and rested her chin on her knees. "Don't ask me to forgive you, because I can't, ok? So please don't."

He closed his mouth without finishing the sentence.

"How could I when there's nothing to forgive? Yes, people are to blame for the past happenings. Like Kato for example; especially him. And me, for not recognizing what happened for a whole week right in front of me…and you, for not telling anyone about it as long as you could, but none of us planned the things to go like that, so no one should ask for forgiveness… not of the other two at least."

He glanced at her and twitched his mouth "I wish you'd blame me." He said something he really felt and she smiled "I know."

There was some sort of understanding within her voice that told him that what he just felt was what she had felt six month ago. Back then when she tried to talk to them about what happened, but didn't dare because she was afraid to open old wounds and that she maybe wanted them to tell her that everything was her fault because this would have prevented her from telling herself all this.

"I'm sorry" he said "no forgiveness needed; it's just what I feel."

She smiled and got up again. "So will you now tell me how you feel or keep saying you're alright?"

"How do you know I'm not?" he asked, avoiding an answer.

She clicked her tongue dismissively "you have been unconscious for 2 days after a dangerous illness affected you for a whole week. The past days your temperature drop to a perilous range and your body lacked sleep, food and rest… how could you be ok?"

He saw her smile fading and slowly got aware that she had been afraid he would die during the last two days… this was a pretty long time and to him it felt like only moments had passed since this night in BCH. "I mean… what should I have done if you wouldn't have made it?" she mumbled with a shaky voice and Conan tried once again to sit up to look into her face and not just at her body. "You took the antidote to safe me… if you would have died how could I…" she ran her hand forcefully over her wet eyes while her voice gave up.

"Lil" Conan finally sat up after some painful tries and looked at the girl trying to whip away the tears. "To me I just saw minutes ago how you've been shot and couldn't give a damn about it and now you treat me like I'm the victim…"

"Baka!" he had tried to cheer her up but as a reward she just hit his shoulder with her fist; a habit of her, just that this time it caused an unusual level of pain and made him gasp. "_'been shot_' sounds like it had been a serious injury… did I hurt you?" she blinked away some tears and saw him rubbing his shoulder. "Did you do some workout while I've been unconscious?" he asked carefully patting his shoulder. "No… the disease just seemed to have worn out your body."

He nodded, still feeling the pain, but something else had caught his interest. "What did you mean with _'like it had been a serious injury'_?... You have been shot, you nearly bled to death – how could an injury be more serious?"

Alice knitted her eyebrows. "…to death? Wha… no. Not even close." Without warning she raised her sweater and showed him her belly. He blushed until he saw what she really wanted to show him; a little suture on the right side of her belly, slightly beyond her navel, barely some inches long. "The bullet didn't hit any important organs and I just lost milliliter of blood… I just faded because of a shock" she explained while lowering the sweater again. "It's a little embarrassing, but the injury was nothing. They just got the bullet out and hours later I was back to normal."

Conan blinked and tried to think back of the night. "But I could swear there was a huge puddle of your blood…" he mumbled. Every piece of this infected body had told him she was about to die. "Maybe it was just what he wanted to see… He wanted my blood and when I lost some it appeared like a whole lot to him, so…"

"Him?!" Conan interrupted her and she blinked. "Yeah… the cannibal… or would you want feel better if I call it _'you'_?"

Until now he hadn't thought about in how far this disease had changed him. He knew he'd never done anything like that, but hadn't it still been him?

"I'm not sure… I remember everything." He began and finally came to say something that really worried him "I remember 'his' decisions and thoughts… everything feels like it had been me, so how can we pretend it was someone else?"

She nodded and slowly sat down on the side of his bed. "You have been infected slowly so you likely have experienced the change a lot clearer than I have… I remember this pain that kept hitting me and then I reached a point where I gave up". Conan scanned her while she kept speaking, obviously carefully avoiding his look. He recognized that this was the first time she ever spoke to him about what happened when she was alone in the school. "I thought I've had allowed this thing within me to take over control so this pain would stop… This is what I kept blaming myself for."

She tilted her head and their looks met. "I remember giving up and in a way I always believed I should have been able to stand it."

He didn't know how to reply. He was grateful that she had shared this with him, but the only way to thank her for that was opening up, too. "There had been no pain" he began, thinking back at the days in the hospital where he must have inhaled the powder. "I visited you once a day and every time I felt better… so I kept visiting you more often." He felt her eyes watching him while he explained "Then those ideas started - just ideas that it'd be great if everyone could feel like this. I think somewhere after three days I recognized that nothing hurt me anymore while food started to taste disgusting to me… at this time it was already too late and I didn't care anymore; not even when I found out that it was the cannibal disease doing this to me."

It was the touch of her hand on his shoulder that brought him back from this memory. "Let me see how badly I hurt you" she said and pulled back the sleeve of his patient's shirt. He gladly watched her doing this. In a way it brought them away from this issue while she showed him at the same time that she wasn't afraid to be close to him; not even after this. "We won't forget about it" she mumbled while she ran her eyes over the skin of his shoulder. "It's not like we could, but we also _need_ to talk about it. Not always, but sometimes… this was the hardest thing during the past six month… trying to avoid this, so if you feel like talking just do it, ok?"

He watched her pulling his sleeve back and nodded slowly "ok." He wasn't really sure if he'd ever _want_ to talk about this, but maybe even the chance that he could was enough,

"It won't become a bruise" she said "but I should watch out for now, you'll be sensitive for some time" she gave him a smirk he annoyed replied "sensitive? Rubbish, you just surprised me."

"Oh, really?" doubting she raised her eyebrows and climbed onto the bed. With a careful move she sat onto his pelvis and tilted her head "then you shouldn't mind me doing that."

He was aware that she wasn't really sitting on him, she was more holding herself above his body by pressing herself up with her knees, but even the light pressure this caused for his back was enough to make it ache. "Nope" he replied though and tried to keep his voice relaxed. She glared annoyed at him "how can you be this proud?! Your body is sore, that is just natural!" and with a kinder voice she mumbled "can't you let me take care of you? This thing has turned you so cold for a whole week and I was looking forward to take some care of you."

He blinked in confusion; he hadn't expected her to actually enjoy caring for him, he'd always thought she did this because she felt she needed to when he was hurt. "Uhm…" he began, not sure what to say in this situation and embarrassed rubbed the back of his head. A sudden pain in his hand, topping the pain before, made him stop. He lowered it to his eyes and saw a huge bandage around it.

"It's broken" Alice explained lowly, "the fracture was pretty complex, but they did a good job vetting it and said it won't have long-term consequences." He inspected his hand a little longer and remembered banging it against the glass door. "I see" he mumbled, his eyes still focused on the bandage when a small hand close itself around it. Carefully Alice pulled his hand closer to her and glanced at it. "In a way… he hasn't entirely been bad" she mumbled and Conan couldn't tell if she was talking to him or herself. "He had several chances to kill me but he never did… he waited for my permission, though his ways in trying to get it were a little… forceful."

He pulled his hand out of her grab and hid it under the blanket "don't try to blanch over what _'he'_ did, ok? There was no sense behind it at all; just a monster trying to hurt everything it could get close to."

"That's what you think cannibals to be?" she asked very low and he glanced up at her; wondering why her look turned this sad.

"Don't you?" he asked and she kept quiet for a long time until she shook her head. "Uh-uh. I think… this disease boosts the personality… but it doesn't change it fully."

He knitted his eyebrows, not sure why she was this honest about him blaming himself – until finally a light went warm in his mind. "Lil, I wasn't talking about you!" he began but she replied his look seriously "weren't you? I know you blame yourself for what happened, but Shinichi, you can only do that if you blame me for what happened back then in the school."

"Don't you blame yourself?" he asked and she lowered her eyes "… not as much as before… I really don't want to gloss anything over, but what happened in the BCH helped me to understand something important." She hesitated before she continued "six months ago I didn't allow a stranger or a monster to take over… I allowed myself to change. Don't get me wrong; it was to the worse, but it was still me. That's why I wanted to know if I should call it you? Because… it was."

His eyes widened and he felt a little disappointed, a piece of him had hoped he could get this guilt away from him. "So… you do blame me" he mumbled and she shook her head. "You don't get me! I neither blame you nor _him_!"

He glared at her and saw a light rosé on her cheeks "If you'd allow someone else to take over I'd have been at least disappointed, but it was an illness, something boosting what has already been inside you; and in me." He tilted his head, now he was entirely confused. "So you say a piece of me wants to kill the whole humankind and a piece of you wants to eat people close to you… and that's why you don't blame us?"

"No, that's why I said boosting… you know, Kato said it in his notes. Obviously the disease makes people hurt those especially, who they have been close to and I think this is a proof that the disease expands your… dunno, let's call it dark or insane side." She slowly sat back on her legs and added "I like you; a lot… and this is what the disease pushed. It twisted it and boosted it to its extreme; it made me wanna eat you up… literally spoken. You see?"

He blinked, slowly getting what she tried to tell him. "So… you think the cannibal-me tried to infect the whole world because…"

She nodded, happy that he understood "yeah, it just twisted your wish to help the people to survive and added maybe a little madness to it. The cannibal basically tried to help everyone." Conan thoughtfully replied her look, not sure if he could believe this. "It's true!" she added "look: for example Ayumi! She likes you and this disease pushed and twisted this wish that much, that she was even ready to hurt other people." Conan leaned back and tried to sort this idea of her. "Right now this is a little bit much, ne?" she asked understanding and smiled "it took me days to get everything into the right order."

"That's not it" he mumbled "just… if you don't believe that the past happenings have been committed by someone else, how can you stay this close to me?" she blinked surprised. "You never made sure I'm me! I could still be a cannibal, waiting for a chance to bite you! Or if this idea generally comes from me what tells you I won't try to make it happen someday? Why the hell don't you at least make me apologize for what I did?!"

"Because I know" she replied calmly. "What?!" he snapped and she explained "I know you won't go to kill the world, because this was just the madness of this disease! And if you would, you would likely have better reasons for doing it. And I don't want you to say sorry for what happened, because I don't blame you. Your reasons were silly and evil, but you were suffering from a disease, maybe it makes you believe you decided to do all this, but you didn't, you were brought to do it."

She reached out to touch his chest with her hand and it was like she had finally continued the touch she had broken off before. "And I knew you are no cannibal anymore from the second I saw you lying here. You were sore, you were sorry and your heart started beating again." He followed her look that had slowly wandered off to one of the monitors. A thin line was rushing from the left to the right, jumping up and down and obviously it had increased its speed within the second she had touched him. He blushed but Alice just smiled and bended forward to support herself with her hands left and right to him, her fringe softly falling in her face.

"So I just know, ok? I could see it beating during the whole time you were lying in this bed and recovered and I missed it a lot."

He knew the look in her eyes well "I will never forgive myself what happened" Conan said, knowing this wasn't what she wanted to hear at all, but she replied "and I won't ever forgive myself what I did to you, back then in our class room." They exchanged looks, both seeming to tell the other one that they don't mind and in a way this was just what he needed. He sat up a little and kissed her, waiting inwardly for a trace of fear or at least doubt, but couldn't find it. She kissed him back and he couldn't tell when they had been this close to each other before. It must have been ages since none of them needed to hesitate before touching, or since their kisses had stopped tasting doubtful. Even more he felt disappointed when he heard someone opening the door and closing it after entering his room.

Since her arms were busy with preventing her from sitting on him, he raised his hands and cupped her face, carefully since one hand was still broken. "Someone's there" Alice mumbled without stopping the kiss.

"I don't care" he mumbled back and slid his hands from her cheeks to her neck and caused her to smile.

"Eeew." A deep voice choked and finally they stopped their kiss.

"I mean, I am a cannibal hunter, I saw humans ripping apart other humans just to feast on their guts, but this is likely one of the most disgusting things I had to see… to-much-saccharine sweet romance."

Alice pulled away and gave the man who had appeared in the door an annoyed look. "What's it Kato?" she asked and the man grinned "I just wanted to see if our friend woke up by now" and with a grin at Conan he added "yo, cannibal-boy."

Conan scanned the man carefully; he was as big and unkempt as Conan remembered him, but he had met this Kato only as a cannibal and his infected body had told him he disliked the man – so maybe he actually was a good person. "Ne Alice, can ya give us a moment to talk in private?" Kato asked and Conan let his look wander from Kato to Alice; the way they talked to each other and looked at each other wasn't the way a doctor talked to a patient; somehow they behaved like they knew each other better than that.

Alice look had turned asking and Conan knew she was ok with leaving them alone, but for some reason she seemed to make sure he was also ok with being alone with Kato. He nodded shortly and Alice got down from the bed "…fine" she said slowly; looking at Kato. "5 minutes while I get something" and with those words she left the room, closing the door behind her. Kato smiled and looked at Conan "you've heard the nurse of horror, we have to hurry up."

"Nurse of horror?" Conan raised an eyebrow while Kato was sitting down on the visitor's chair Alice had left some minutes ago. Twitching his mouth he slightly got up again and raised the book he had accidentally sat down on. "Black Peter" he mumbled and shrugging he placed the book on Conan's desk who glanced at it and smiled touched. "That's what the other nurses around here call her" Kato explained "nurse of horror… you should have seen her whenever one dared to make a silly remark about you and the others being cannibals; she can be pretty scary."

Conan watched the man, who was searching for anything within the pockets of his coat, and frowned. "Why are you here?" he asked "I doubt you just came here to tell me about the hospital staff is calling Alice names."

Kato remained silent, he searched and finally his look brightened and he pulled out a single battered cigarette and a lighter. "You still are pretty smart" Kato replied and lit his cigarette. Again he didn't say a word until he took a drag and blew the thick smoke out through his lips. "Well, first I wanted to see in how far you have recovered, I mean if my antidote had failed I would have had to correct this mistake" he winked at Conan in a way that told him he meant he would have killed him. "Anyways, of course it worked and we got our happy ever after."

Conan twitched his mouth as the man took a drag again; no matter how less he liked his cannibal-self it had been right – this man was obnoxious. "What brings us back to our question why you're here" he mumbled, slightly annoyed that he had swapped Alice's company with his. Kato just grinned "right. Well, I thought you may be curious about what's gonna happen to you… I mean, you hurt people. You hurt and hijacked and many of your victims were kids, so no matter how sweetly understanding Alice is, you have to see that the police won't be this lenient towards you."

Conan hesitated, he hadn't thought about this, yet, but now that he did he felt how less this worried him; it was more the opposite – a part of him felt relieved. "I'll have to accept the punishment for what happened" he said and felt in a way serious bliss. Wasn't that what he had wanted? – Someone else who pointed a finger at him and blaming him. A deserved punishment.

Kato slightly raised his eyebrows "you don't mind?"

Conan shook his head and Kato made a tsk sound before dragging on his cigarette again. "What a shame. I once wanted to be the good guy; you know? The savior of the weak, but you have to play the brave one" Kato closed his eyes pretending to be disappointed.

"What?" Conan asked and the man smiled before he explained "you won't go to prison. Nah, not even be blamed for that, you just have been a poor infected victim. One of those kids everyone feels like hugging because of what happened."

And since Conan still didn't got what he meant he continued "first you get attack in your school and then, half a year later, a doctor who infected himself to find out what the new version of the diseases does, bites you and infects you, too."

Conan's eyes widened, this doctor took all the blame for him?! "You really want to pretend you infected _yourself_ and bit me?! Why?"

"I thought you're smart" Kato said dryly "it's the best for everyone. First: It actually is my fault; I infected you and it doesn't really matter whether I did this through the air or through a bite. Second: It will spare you any possible punishment; though I doubt the police would discipline a kid too hard. And third:…"

"No!" Conan interrupted him, straighten up in his bed and his anger even drowned the pain this caused him. "I won't make you get punished for something I did! Also don't you have this research team in Africa? You are needed there! Just tell them I stole your powder; I'm a kid, we are curious and get ourselves into dangerous situations."

Kato blinked surprised at him and shook his head doubtfully "I hadn't believed you to be this… dumb."

"What?" Conan wondered.

"Don't be ridicules! This wouldn't do anyone any good. I know how ya feel, ok? I know you are scared of getting away with it, because you blame yourself, but just accepting a random punishment isn't really a good way to make up for what happened."

Conan glared sullenly at Kato while he continued "Look, it hasn't been your fault, ok? But of course hearing that isn't enough for you; sure I wouldn't be happy with this, too. So, you wanna make up for it? Then don't just think about yourself. What would happen when you take all the blame, huh? Wouldn't your friends worry even more about you? And Alice…"

Conan's look slowly stopped darkening "how do you think she'd feel? At least she got away with it, too."

"That's not the same" Conan mumbled but Kato shook his head seriously "it is. Both infected, both hurt people they like and both have to live with the memory."

"You're… you're actually doing this for Alice, don't you?" Conan asked. It was a sudden awareness hitting him and Kato's face turning slightly red told him he was right. "You like her!" Conan's expression had turned more surprised than Kato's. The big man just pulled his hat deep into his face and growled "don't be ridicules. The girl is a heck of a badass, deathly troublesome and worryingly close to a lunatic, I'm just doing this for myself."

Conan looked annoyed at him "for yourself?" he asked doubting and Kato nodded, still hiding his face "if I tell them I infected myself I am a silly doctor who went too far, but I'm not to blame for everything that happened afterwards. But if I tell them I infected a child then I am mad and cruel and they won't ever let me practice medicine."

The man looked at him again and chortled heavily proud about his plan "I am doing this for no one but me."

Conan scanned him for a moment "I don't believe you. No matter what you say you like her a lot." Kato kept chortling for some time and when he finally stopped he got up from his chair "if you have seen the slightest sympathy from me towards her than just because we fought one night together. Site to site, up against a dangerous thing that wants to kill you… that's brings you closer together, no matter if you like the other one or not… 'cause actually, she only woke old memories with me."

For the second time since Conan had woken up he found himself starring at a bare belly; just that the sight on Kato was a lot less enjoyable than the one on Alice. Kato lowered his shirt again and Conan felt himself beating this picture down in his mind with some kind of mental stick, hoping this wouldn't mix up with what he had seen of Alice; since both had one thing in common; a scar.

Kato's scar was a lot bigger though, it was on the side of his body and it looked old. "What happened?" Conan asked and found Kato smiling sadly "better ask _who_ happened." Since Conan didn't reply a thing Kato continued. "Her name was Becci, she was 19 when we met while I've been at the end of my twenties… she was still 19 when she died."

Conan saw the man slightly stroking the scar beyond his shirt while his look darkened. "I came into this jungle because I wanted to help people and because I was looking for an adventure, but I had never expected to find one like that. People suffering from cannibalism and our team barely had information… We learned everything about it, but we hadn't learned that it isn't enough to fight cannibals mentally; you have to fight them physically or die."

"And they killed Becci?" Conan asked but Kato made his tsk sound "_we_ killed her. Becci joined our team as the youngest member. She was the only woman, but she could easily keep up with us… she was strong, she was smart, she was funny, she was… a heck of a badass, deathly troublesome and worryingly close to a lunatic."

Conan recognized Kato using those words again and slowly he understood what Kato felt when he was around Alice. "So Alice reminds you of her?" he asked lowly and Kato shrugged "maybe in a way… hah, I'm growing sentimental in my dotage! I just wish Bec had had as much luck as Alice…"

"You said she died…"

"Three month after we got to know each other. We were visiting a village where some people seemed to suffer from a disease with similar symptoms to our cannibal-disease. We had caught and healed single cannibals already, but this village… my god they were _all_ cannibals! Before we understood against what we were up to fight, they were hunting us. We ran into the jungle… half of our team killed before we even reached the next river. Hoping they never learned how to swim we believed we were safe – and we really were… at least some of us made it across the river… then the changing started.

I saw friends and colleagues losing their whole personality within seconds and becoming drooling monsters, now hunting for us themselves. 7… 7 out of 56 made it to a cave close to our camp, among them me and Becci. Becci however… had been bitten. It was just a small wound and she hadn't changed so I believed… nah, I _knew_ she was ok. The others didn't believe me and told her to go away or they'd kill her. Becci understood that and left… this was her certain death ok?! The infected of our team were still out there and I knew she'd been easy prey so I…"

"You followed her" Conan mumbled and when Kato looked at him they understood that both had done the same. "Yeah" he continued emotionlessly "I just caught up with her when I knew it had been a mistake. She had been infected and changed by this time. She attacked me and… did this" he pointed at the part of his body with the scar. "The others must have heard me scream because they came and rescued me… they killed her. Tsk, they should just have let me die there; I had been silly enough to deserve it."

Conan knitted his eyebrows and Kato fully turned around to him with a dark look "this day I learned two things. 1. Cannibals mustn't be trusted! They are masters in tempting and misuse the fact you want to believe they are still the people you once knew them to be and 2. The infected are never to blame. They are sick and not aware of what they are doing. So _never_ blame yourself too long, or you're also blaming every other infected person, including Becci and Alice!"

A long break of silences followed Kato's story in which Conan wasn't sure what to say. In the end it was Kato who shrugged "now I really told ya the whole sobbing story. Sorry for that."

Conan shook his head "just… if this Becci meant so much to you, why do you keep denying you like Alice?"

Kato grinned again and adjusted his hat "maybe I just didn't want you to believe I'm another rival, by telling ya that she reminds me of my old crush."

Conan blinked "huh… rival?"

"Ya know, about whom this bow-girl ends up with; one rival is more than enough if you ask me. You really don't need me in this."

Conan pushed the blanket away and stood up onto his bed, ignoring the pain "what 'one rival' are you talking about?!" he snapped. Kato seriously seemed surprised "oh… you don't know about him… uhm, maybe we better forgot about what I said" the man turned to leave but Conan grabbed his collar, clenching his teeth because of what this did do his broken hand, but pulled him down on his eyelevel, though "I'm asking you once again: what are you talking about?"

Kato blinked "you're pretty creepy boy… I… ok see I thought you know it since this girl seems to be somewhat of a floozy."

Conan's look darkened "what?"

"I mean… I heard she has been pretty 'up-front', both when she was a cannibal and when you have been one, so I thought you know such women often have several… h-hey you're choking me!"

Conan ignored his grip on Kato's shirt growing stronger while he slowly understood what the man was telling him, though he didn't see _what_ made him think so.

"The first time she couldn't help it and the second time… she just needed to pretend she was a cannibal!" Conan snapped "and how does that make you think there is exactly one rival?"

"Never wondered why I didn't shot her?" Kato asked, trying to breathe "I had my revolver pointed at her head, but then I saw something and stopped. She mumbled something, I doubt she even knows it, but she mumbled a name and I didn't believe that a cannibal, no matter how good it plays pretend, would do something like that… She thought she was about to die and if the only thing your mind comes up at such a point is a name you can't tell me this person isn't very precious to you."

Conan slowly soften his grip and Kato continued "first I thought this person is maybe her father or brother or… dunno uncle or something, because she did anything possible to rescue you, so I wondered why it wasn't your name she mumbled…"

Conan knew this was impossible, Alice had no brother and she didn't like her father enough to be her last thought; he brought his face very close to Kato's "whose name? It was Jack, wasn't it?!"

Kato raised an eyebrow "nah, no English name! Neither Conan nor Jack… is English somehow popular with parents at the moment?! It was a good old Japanese name she mumbled, so I knew it was none of her relatives who all have English names."

Whose name was it?! Conan's mind was rushing through all possibilities. If not Jack who then? Eisuke? Araide? Kaito Kid? Maybe Hattori?!

"Give me the name" he growled and Kato hesitated "maybe you should first have a soothing cup of…"

"The name" he hissed angry and Kato gave him a nervous look "Shi... Shinichi."

Conan felt his anger vanishing and leaving him alone with nothing but feeling a little silly. "What the hell is happening here?"

A female voice had appeared and made both Kato and Conan wince and look at the door. Alice stood in the door with a covered silver tray and an annoyed look she threw at Kato and Conan while closing the door behind her. "Li… Alice" Conan mumbled surprised. "I heard my name and then something about floozy" she explained and kept piercing the two men with her looks "so I thought I come in and then I heard 'Shinichi'…"

For a second her look changed and she seemed to ask Conan wordlessly if Kato had somehow found out about their identity, he shook his head shortly when Kato interrupted. "Very right! I told him because you can't keep playing your evil games with the hearts of those poor two boys!" Kato began and patted Conan's back this forcefully that it nearly brought Conan to his knees. Somehow he couldn't get rid of the thought Kato had started liking him, too.

"Two boys…" Alice mumbled confused and raised an eyebrow "yes two!" Kato said triumphant "you should finally make a decision between the poor Conan here and Shinichi!"

Alice blinked and Conan fast explained "Kato… uhm told me that you mumbling _Shinichi's_ name when you thought you'd die"

Alice face ran deeply red "I… what?!" she shrieked and Conan couldn't help but smile. "So…!" Kato began again and straightened up, honestly trying to protect Conan "who do you chose?"

Alice was still fighting against her blush while she mumbled "decided… I don't have to decided!... Because, uhm Shinichi is… uhm…"

Her eyes met Conan's, searching for help but he was as helpless as she was, so she just added "uhm… my pet!"

Conan frowned, forming a 'what?!' with his lips but Alice just shrugged. "You're pet?" Kato asked doubting "The one thing you think about before dying is _your pet_?"

"It's… a very nice pet" Alice replied insecure, but when a trace of believe appeared on Kato's face she added "yup! Shinichi's my precious pet" she smirked at Conan "ne Conan?"

Conan threw an annoyed glare at her "yeah…"

Her smile turned evil "say it."

"I won't…!" he began "but how should Kato believe it then?" she asked malignly. "Cut it off" he growled and saw Kato shrugging "lunatic" he mumbled and left the room. Sighing lowly Alice walked over to him and dropped onto the chair; still holding the huge tray in her hands that was covered with a silver cap and Conan sat down on the bed again.

"You're evil" he grumbled and she snickered impish "too bad Kato was already convinced, how I'd love to hear it from you."

"What happened to the girl that wanted to care for me just minutes ago?" he asked, leaning back against his pillow and she shrugged "she thought it'd be a nice revenge for you allowing Ayumi to call me your pet for a whole night."

He looked at her and smiled when he saw her pouting about that. "And then you allow Kato to call me a floozy, that's really rude."

"Gomen, I'm afraid Kato was just worried about me. Since he thinks you have the habit to behave _'up-front'_ towards me." Satisfied he recognized her face glooming again "I'm not… ok, well maybe..." she chewed her lower lip. "Don't worry, I know you're not" he replied gently; they enjoyed teasing each other, but he felt her honestly feeling sorry for that. "No, I am!" she snapped, like he just made her recognize it. "When I am a cannibal and even when you are one! My god I stripped for… you… him… whatsoever!" She hid her face embarrassed.

"I remember it to be more like an innocent getting-out-of-cloth" he tried to sooth her, but she raised her red face and glared at him. "Don't be naïve! You're lucky I didn't had any whip-cream at hand, or this part of the night would have been censored in most countries!" He grinned and finally even her lips curled to a sheepish smile.

"Geez, I still don't understand how all this happened in 1 night", Alice said still a trace of a smile on her lips "I mean, diseases and monsters aside I learned a lot about me."

"First and most importantly: up-front-ness" Conan agreed and she threw a warning glance at him. "Right, but also the madness stuff… I thought I could control it by now, sorry for that." She mumbled but he snorted dismissively "hey if I'm not allowed to say sorry, you're not, too! And it's not your fault, in the end you didn't do anything dangerous."

"Except attacking you with a scalpel" she reminded him and he shrugged "after I bit you; that's fair if you ask me. How is… it by the way?" He felt his stomach contracting just by talking about the wound he caused her, but she smiled "ah, a lot better. This disease sharpens the teeth but all in all you didn't go in too deep." He nodded, knowing that the fact that she didn't show him the wound meant it was deep and likely still painful, no matter what she said.

"Ne, while talking about madness… how does it feel?" he looked at her. Conan had always wanted to know what exactly 'going mad' meant to her. He had never actually witness her 'slipping' how she called it. "Weird." She said, slowly rubbing her shoulders "like losing grip on something… and then suddenly… my focus is changed."

"Focus? On what?" he asked and she remained silent for some moments before she explained "right now I see my life how it is at the moment. With you and the kids and everyone and my past seemed like a blurred picture. When I slip it feels like this changes. Suddenly everything is back what my mum said and did and it's crystal clear in my mind, while you and my friends get blurred."

They looked at each other "a little bit like that. Uhm, but anyways" she began, raising her voice like she wanted to forget this unpleasant memory as soon as possible "my mum'd die to know that she still has that much influence on me – this evil witch." Conan knew she tried to change that issue but the word 'mum' suddenly rang a bell in his mind and he sat up – all shocked. "Oh god! I forgot them!"

Alice had winced at his sudden outburst but Conan already threw off the white blanket and tried to get out off bed. "Whoa, wait!" Alice has gotten up, obviously believing he had some kind of fit, putting the tray aside and pressed him back – frustrated he recognized that in his current state he wouldn't be able to shake her off. "Lil, I need to call them. Seriously!"

"Who?" she asked, still trying to hold him back. "My parents! I called them while I was infected and lured them here. I wanted to use them to spread the infection overseas."

Once again he sat up to get out off the bed so he barely listened to her when she called "I know! Please stay in bed, you're really not in any condition to walk!"

"I… wait you know?" he stopped struggling and allowed the brown-haired to push him back into the pillow. "Yeah. You said something about supporters and I seriously couldn't think of anyone other than your parents or Hattori and called all of them to play it safe."

He glared at Alice who sat down again; obviously glad he hadn't lost his mind. "So you told all of them that…" Conan began, feeling sick all at once – how should he look at them ever again if… "No, of course not. Do you think me entirely stupid?" Alice sighed annoyed. "I called Hattori and asked if he had any plans in coming over – he was surprised about my call and I could be sure you hadn't called him. By the way: Hattori will visit us sometime next month; you're welcome."

Conan gave her a short grin, imagining how the Osaka-boy had invited himself. "With your parents I used your voice-changing-bowtie. I thought they would figure something is wrong if I call them without real reason. When I reached them, pretending to be you, they told me all happy that they were just about to get their flight and how happy they were about your invitation – I told them not to come, because 'I'm stuck with some case and really don't need you two bustle about'."

"Not bad" he commented and she twitched her mouth "I lied to them and I was mean. I hate that, I mean they're always nice to me, so better be grateful." She leaned back in her chair, the exhaustion of the past days seemingly washing over her "I mean if I had a son and a little girl would keep me away from him while he's in hospital I'd make sure this bitch would never ever see some sunlight again."

"Yeah, but my mum likes you."

"And as long as we keep this a secret from her she will keep liking me, ok?" She glanced at him from the side and he grinned "I won't tell her if you won't." Alice nodded agreeing folding her hands over the tray she'd placed on her lap again and Conan tilted his head.

"Ne, what's on this tray?" he tried to change the issue.

Finally she beamed happily "my surprise for you!" She got out of the chair and placed the tray on his lap. "You haven't eaten anything in a week really; they just prevented you from starving through a tube" she said and pointed at a transparent tube coming from a bag and running down to his arm. "So, I thought you'd want something proper to eat. Itadakimasu!"

She looked expecting at him but he just twitched his mouth "oh… uhm Lil… to be honest I'm not this hungry… so…"

"Shinichi, it's the vegetarian menu." She added and his expression brightened all at once. He pulled the tray closer to him and removed the cap "you're awesome!" He beamed; glad to see no trace of meat among all the salad, fruits, rice and pasta.

"I know you think you will never be able to stand meat again, but actually this aversion will vanish soon" she explained, but right at this moment he doubted this, he didn't care though as long as he had this tray of proper food in front of him.

For a while they remained silent while he ate but then Alice lowly began "ne Shinichi, can I ask something?"

He looked at her and saw in her eyes that it wouldn't be a question how he liked his meal. "Something about what happened 2 days ago, just if you're ok though!"

He swallowed and nodded "sure, what do you want to know?" He wasn't sure if he wanted to talk about it now, but both Alice and Kato had opened up to him tonight and both seemed to have felt better afterwards, so he was ready to answer her questions.

"It's not this important maybe – I just kept wondering. And as I said, I won't blame you at all, so just be honest, yeah?" The English girl had turned around to him and pierced him with her brown eyes that made it hard to believe for Conan that this question was really this trivial.

"Uhm ok" he replied heavily swallowing the rice down he had been chewing. Alice bended forward on her chair so she was supporting herself with her hands on his mattress – her fingers digging into the sheets. "When Ayumi was infected you've been alone with her pretty frequently… and well both of your were suffering of this cannibal-mind-disease-thingy, so…" she hesitated with barely some inches between their faces. The tantei blinked at her with nervous eyes "how close did you come?!" she suddenly snapped and scanned his face, obviously waiting for a trace of guilt.

"What?" he asked amused, he had waited for something really serious to come. "I know you couldn't help it! So just tell me _how_ close exactly it was! A kiss? Brief or long? Or was it more?!" He found Alice glaring at him and slowly replied "I think we… hugged."

"And?" she dug deeper and he shook his head "nothing more, just hugging." Alice's hazel eyes were locked on his like they were able to look through them and tell whether he was lying or not. Finally she relaxed with a deep sigh. "Shew, I mean it was nothing you both were to blame for, but it's still good to know."

Conan leaned back, too – this girl could be creepy and that was just her 'sane' creepiness, but somehow Conan couldn't help but be glad it really had kept at hugging; otherwise he maybe had to worry slightly about Ayumi's health. He glanced over to Alice who seemed to be fully eased and he couldn't help but smile; insane, clever, brave girl. Suddenly he remembered something he hadn't fully figured, yet.

"Uhm, can I ask something?" he asked and saw her nodding surprised "sure, as long as it's not again about me being 'up-front'."

"I'm just wondering… why are the both of us healed? There was only 1 antidote, so how does it come?"

Thoughtfully Alice reached over to sneak a grape from his fruit-bowl. "Ahh, my master plan" she mumbled, stashing the grape in her mouth. "You're a detective, find it out" she commented, chewing on the fruit. He twitched his mouth, more pensive than annoyed and went back in his mind. "We didn't actually saw whether Kato administered you the antidote, or if it remained in the body of the injection" he began slowly "_I_ made sure there was only 1 other injection with antidote left… the one Mitsuhiko found broken in Kato's office… but we can't be sure this was really an antidote… he said it was a reddish liquid mixed up with blood…"

Alice nodded "right, you don't know all this. Go to what you know." He recognized her guiding him a little; she was testing him – the tantei-him and Conan smiled; he had missed deducing. "The antidote I administered myself must be real, otherwise we wouldn't be here… this was the antidote you had with you while entering my office."

She nodded again, showing him he hadn't made a mistake so far and fished for another grape. "We also know at some point you must have gotten in touch with the antidote yourself… otherwise you wouldn't have had to fake being a cannibal."

He closed his eyes while he tried to connect the pieces of the puzzle. Two people who had been injected the antidote… but only 1 antidote, if he subtracted the broken one in Kato's office. "Somehow…" he started again after this break and felt Alice watching him expecting "you must have gotten hold of a second antidote… I'm not fully sure but I'd say we are talking about the one for me. I don't see another reason for you showing the side effects of the antidote, back then in Kato's office, than that Kato's first try to vaccinate you was a success. It wouldn't have helped you the slightest and I was there… I'm pretty sure you weren't pretending."

He glanced at her and she smiled. "So the final question is: where did I got the other antidote from. It takes days producing one and, as you already said, there was no other antidote left in the building."

He knitted his eyebrows; the pieces were put together and they left only the space for one possible answer. "What I administered myself wasn't actually the 'original' antidote… you found some kind of replacement for it."

They glanced at each other "what did you use?" he asked; remembering well that sugar – no matter how much his alter-ego ate as a test – hadn't had any effect. "What would you have used?" she asked lowly "if you have been in my place?"

'_Everything'_ was what came to his mind first; he had used every possibility to cure Alice and what he remembered her going through he felt a certainty that she would have, too. "You… had no actual antidote at hand. You needed something that would 100% work…" he crossed his arms. "What else?" she asked helping "describe my situation."

He shrugged, not sure what kind of information would be helpful. He tried to picture the Alice from 2 days ago in his mind "you were scared, you had barely any time, you knew your chances to defeat the cannibals weren't tending against 0 compared to the others', you…"

"Why?" she asked suddenly interrupting him and he looked up "why did I believe I'd stand a chance against a bunch of cannibals?"

"Well, you were the only one remembering being a cannibal at this time" he began but she shook her head. "You… I don't know. It was just something I thought you could feel. If I had been in your place, with a protection against the cannibals pumping around in me, I'd have felt…that…"

He stopped the sentence slowly. "Oh" he mumbled and finally saw what the reddish liquid had been that cured him.

She smiled lightly and dropped another grape in her mouth. He watched her. It didn't matter how many injections had been around, only the amount of antidote mattered; the antidote that had entered her veins and mixed up with her blood, making it an antidote itself. "I was lucky that we were in a hospital" she explained swallowing "Kato had some unused injections in the drawer of his desk."

"May I see it?" he asked and she hesitated before she glanced at him, then she nodded. While she sat down on his bed next to him; pulling back the sleeve of her sweater; he finally understood why she wore a long-sleeved top in the middle of summer. The wrist she showed to him wasn't bandaged for some reason, so Conan could see that it had been frequently attacked with something thin… something thin, sharp and long – an injection-needle. Alice had taken her own blood with an injection, knowing that it would contain enough of the antidote to cure him. He reached out and Alice slightly pulled her wrist away from him, before she allowed him to hold it.

He scanned it with his eyes; those marks were no result of a beginner trying to take his own blood; they were caused by someone violently jamming a needle again and again into her skin; taking his anger, or frustration or even fear out on her writs.

"Lilly" he mumbled and she pulled her wrist away from him, carefully covering it with her sleeve again and smiling sadly. "After this… After calming down I took my own blood as an antidote" she explained, still looking at it. Conan glanced at the girl and her sad smile "I never knew, you…" he began, but was interrupted by her looking straightly up at him. "I'm not" she said calmly "it was the very first time I had… such an outburst. I doubt it'll happen again… it wasn't something very enjoyable."

Silence. Conan knew there was a difference between people who cut themselves; slowly, because they needed a proof that they were alive; and people who seriously hurt themselves; just while suffering from some kind of huge emotional stress – this knowledge was barely soothing.

"Now you're looking like that" she mumbled "for the first time I tried to help you, instead of vice versa and now you're looking at me again like you'd need to save me."

"That's not it" he replied with a serious tone "you did save me. I just wonder at what price…" Her look turned excusing "no price! I burst out, that happens. It's like rubbing one's head while being annoyed! Some kind of self-destruction under pressure is natural… I just went too far." He didn't reply so she added "it's nothing that could happen again. It was a horrible night and I didn't know how to deal with it; now I do. It won't happen again."

He hugged her, not sure whether what she just said were excuses given to quit this situation from lasting, or if she was serious about it and if he could believe her if she was. He just knew that talking this dead right now wouldn't help; she wouldn't say anything else than she just did, not as long as she believed him to need a rest, so he simply repeated something she had said before. "We won't forget about it." Conan felt Alice tensing in his hug. "We need to talk about it. Not now, but later…"

Slowly she nodded and both remained silent; holding close to each other.

* * *

-Conan-

(H)

Conan couldn't tell what exactly woke him up; it was more like an unseizable feeling that someone was around. He opened his eyes, recognizing that his body felt as sore as before – maybe even a little more, since the pain pills he had been given, stopped working.

A soft murmur coming from next to him caught his look. Alice had snuggled close to him under the blanket and mumbled some low words. He couldn't tell whether her dream was a good or a bad one, but judging from the concentrated expression on her face and the word 'whip-cream' he understood Alice mumbling, he was sure he'd loved to know what exactly was going on in her mind.

Smiling he peeked at the digital clock on one of his monitors; exactly 5:15 a.m. it said so he still had plenty of time to get back to sleep. He rolled onto his back and thought about this night. After their conversation about Alice outburst they hadn't said a lot more. He had told her he was grateful for her using her own blood as antidote, since he knew how much needles scared her, and she said it was nothing. She'd told him Kato's notes made clear that the new antidote was useless when administered through the mouth – the only possibility there was, was taking her own blood and injecting it right into his bloodstream.

He closed his eyes thoughtfully. How could he be sure she wouldn't hurt herself ever again? Wasn't this an obvious signal that something was wrong with her?

"Not that we didn't already know that."

He flung his eyes open and found himself looking into Alice's face. He nearly gasped, but she laying her finger on his lips hushed him. "Shhh, or you'll wake her up" Alice whispered and let her eyes wander to Conan's side and back to his face. He glanced down and found Alice still sleeping next to him. He frowned while the Alice on top of him pulled her hand back. _"I'm hallucinating" _shot through his head and to his surprise the Alice on top of him nodded "very right."

As an answer to his wide eyes she explained "hey, I'm a hallucination; of course I hear what you think."

"_So the side effects of the antidote also work on me…"_ he pondered and the hallucinated Alice nodded. "Not as heavily as they did with me, but yeah."

"_You?"_ he raised an eyebrow, finding this half thought-half spoken conversation pretty confusing. "She – Me – Whatsoever" she shrugged and laid down on his chest; tinting his face red. Obviously she really was a hallucination; she didn't cause the lightest pain by lying on his sore body, but oddly he found himself still unable to move under her presence – his own hallucination pinned him down to the bed. A hallucination that worryingly looked like Alice… though she didn't remind him as much of the present Alice than of her cannibal self. She wore the same white dress he saw her wearing in his nightmare six month ago and her pale presence was only disturbed by her entirely black eyes and blood-red lips that both distinguished her from her human-self.

"You're starring" she whispered and his blush increased together with the unpleasant knowledge that this was just what his cannibal-self had said to Alice before. The cannibal's lips curled to a smile. "Oh don't worry. You don't have to feel guilty for liking me, you do remember your mad girlfriend admitting she fancies your cannibal-self, too… don't you?"

He knitted his eyebrows half annoyed. "That annoys you?"

"_No that… she said I'm the 'good' she lacks… how can I allow her to think that while I know what I am really capable?" _He felt a little uneasy sharing this emotion with the cannibal-hallucination, but he doubted as long as she was able to hear his thoughts he could keep it a secret from her anyways.

The cannibal-Alice smiled caring "you think you're not 'good' enough?"

"_Look at her"_ he thought and glanced shortly at Alice at his side _"she always tries to take care of others… doesn't that make her _my_ good side?"_

"Humans" the Alice on him chirped "there's nothing like entirely good or bad people. You have your dark side and _my god_ so does she. Forgot how she lost her mind and attacked you with a scalpel?" She must have recognized his look not turning any brighter so she added "you like her and you like her failures, too. Either you were arrogant enough to think yourself to be without such failures, or you were thinking Lilly to be silly enough to believe you not having failures. She loves you – capable of both; good and evil. Isn't this flawed kind of love better than one entirely perfect?"

Though Conan didn't want to admit it, but he knew she was right. He didn't mind Alice having a creepy side; it never scared him because he exactly knew what she would do and what she won't, even though she doesn't always seemed to know about that herself. Maybe – and just maybe – it was the same with her.

"Right you are" the cannibal-Alice sang and reminded Conan that she could hear every little thought of his.

"_What do you want?"_ he suddenly wondered, not believing she was here to comfort him and her smile faded. "Some days ago you'd have done anything to find me this close to you and now you act this repellent" she shook her head disappointedly "what a shame."

He gave her a serious look and she smiled again "I see, you changed yourself and replaced me" gently she stroked her hand over her sleeping-human-self. While his look darkened about the cannibal touching her, its smile grew wider, embracing those inhumanly sharp teeth "my~ this is a good dream."

"_You aren't her, you are a production of my subconscious, so you don't know what she's dreaming since I don't know it"_ he rolled his eyes, but the cannibal-Alice only smiled at him. "Then I maybe should say: What you imagine to be her dream, is good. Naughty you." He felt his face glooming and the cannibal snickered. _"Get lost"_ he thought pissed and she brought her face close to his, so he was nearly able to see his own reflection in those empty eyes. "That's not what you _really_ want" she mumbled hurt and he shivered under the feeling of her breath stroking over his skin.

Once again he knew she was right; he couldn't all-truly tell her to wear off when she looked so much like _his_ Alice – an Alice that lay on him; body to body and had opened her mouth enough for him to see her tongue stroking against her lips from the inside. Without warning she pressed her lips to his, but he had seen this coming, reluctantly admitting to himself that he may wasn't able to influence his subconscious, vice versa however some kind of sway was obviously affecting him.

Slowly, trying to resist it, he raised his hands to her hair and found their kiss growing wilder, their tongues battling for dominance. Someone clearing his throat brought both enough control back to stop the kiss. The cannibal-Alice sat up enough for Conan to see himself standing in the room – leaning against the door and looking at the both of them pissed.

He blinked. It was weird to look at himself without a mirror around; especially while the Conan he looked at, wore a white, bloodstained suite and glared at them through abysmal eyes. "Am I disturbing you?" he asked with his arms crossed over his chest and Conan couldn't help but keep glaring at his twisted reflection, acting all on its own and still in a way just like he would.

"Not really" the cannibal-Alice smiled and looked at him "you could join us."

"No, he couldn't!" Conan decided fast and sat up so the hallucination on top of him had to slide back until she sat on his legs. Cannibal-Alice pouted "how boring" she complained "I thought we could finish what we started half a year ago."

A light moan made Conan and the hallucinations wince. He had said the last thing out loud and Alice was slowly shifting under the blanket and rolled around so he looked at her back – he had nearly forgotten she was there.

"While being asleep she looks so innocent" he heard the cannibal-Conan whisper while he was walking over to the bed. He kneeled down to Alice's face, that she had turned towards the room and ran his hand over her head down to her cheek were it remained. For a moment Conan watched his hallucination do so, when he suddenly saw it licking its lips longing. He threw a dark look at his twisted self but before he could say or think something to make it stop he recognized cannibal-Alice getting off of him and stepping close to cannibal-Conan whose expression slowly turned guilty, like he had been caught.

"I think we should go now" cannibal-Alice hissed and knocked her foot frequently against the floor what made cannibal-Conan straighten up and gave her a sheepish look. "She… is basically you" he tried but stopped under her look "and a cannibal is basically a zombie, but would you prefer a cadaver kissing you the next time?"

The cannibal-Conan smiled excusing and turned to her; "gomen" he pulled her into a kiss she slowly replied. Conan raised an eyebrow and watched how the cannibal-versions of him and Alice petted each other. _"How long will those side-effects of the antidote last?!"_ he pondered, slowly growing sick of how awkward this was. Cannibal-Alice grinned and got out of the kiss "I'm afraid we annoy him" she mumbled and cannibal-Conan shrugged "he's just jealous because we will still be able to do this when he and the human-you will already rot away."

He found his twisted-self throwing a provoking look at him and shrugged himself _"at least I know how Lilly _feels_."_

"You don't have a clue" the cannibal-Conan rolled his eyes "a kiss? That's nothing, just compare it to what we felt when we had our teeth in her flesh" the cannibal-him smiled a malign smile, showing his blood-dripping teeth and reminded Conan about what happened when he bit Alice. There was no feeling that could be compared to this – Conan felt his stomach twisting about how gross this memory was to him. He remembered her scream during this feeling of ripping flesh and blood in his mouth and his stomach seemed to fight hardly against the meal he just had. Nevertheless he knew to a cannibal, there must be nothing better.

He leaned back against his pillow, with a sick feeling clenching his guts. "Always her" the cannibal-Alice pouted and Conan wished they would finally vanish. "Don't be jealous, she was nice, but couldn't stand this very long. No competition to you" the cannibal-him excused.

Conan was afraid he knew what was about to come. "You just say that to sooth me" cannibal-Alice mumbled and the cannibal-Conan smiled, pulled her close to him and dug his teeth into her shoulder. Conan closed his eyes in disgust while his cannibalistic girlfriend moaned happily. He sank back under the blanket, hoping he could somehow get to sleep while his eyes were clenched shut.

"It's just a nightmare" he heard a whisper close to his ear and though a part of him knew this was a tone far too gentle for the cannibal-Alice he didn't open his eyes. "Hey, look at me" she said softly and with a gently warm hand she turned his face down to her. He slowly opened his eyes, worried what he'd see.

Alice was looking at him, smiling dozy and he felt eased, though he still saw his hallucinations continuing their sensual biting and let his eyes wander over to them. "Don't look at them. They won't vanish if you pay attention to them" it was more a hint than an order but he followed it though.

"I didn't want to wake you up… I was answering out loud sometimes" he excused but Alice smiled caring and shook her head "it wasn't your voice that woke me up." He knitted his eyebrows and she added while resting her hands on his chest "you're shaking."

Just by now he recognized his whole body heavily shivering, also the sick feeling in his stomach hadn't vanished and what he thought to be a result of Alice's warmth against his cold skin felt now more like a light fever.

"I'm afraid that the side effects of the antidote will, now that you're conscious again, kick in" she explained "want me to call a nurse?" He shook his head "I just need some sleep" he mumbled, knowing that he wasn't able to find any sleep soon, but for some reason he didn't want to tell her, since a part of him was afraid what the hallucinations would do when Alice left him alone to call a nurse.

Maybe she understood that he wouldn't sleep since she hugged herself close to him again and whispered "wanna tell me what they did?"

"No" he replied, wishing they could talk until it was time to get up, but not about this issue.

"Hmm… want me to tell you what happened in my dream?" he smiled and glanced down on her – her eyes carefully closed and her cheeks rosé. "I'd die for that information, but maybe not tonight while I feel all sore."

"What about Holmes then?" she looked at him "I was sitting next to you for 2 days now and the only book at hand was 'Black Peter' – virtually I learned it by heart."

He blinked expecting and she began "'I have never known my friend to be in better form, both mental and physical, than in the year '95'".

He closed his eyes and pulled her some closer while she kept reciting the Holmes novel. And in a way he knew that this would last – not in the immortal way the cannibals were searching for – but in a way that, when they would die one day, this would be what they would come back to. Being next to each other, some small and some big problems preventing the situation from feeling too calm, and, if he was very lucky, one of them would just recite a Holmes novel.

* * *

_Please leave a review to help me improve :}_

_Btw(!) An epilogue is about to follow ;)_


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